The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) expects to close the year with at least 10 listings on its trading platform from the current four as the bourse continues to make headway in attracting new listings.
The VFEX is a subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and was established to kick-start the Offshore Financial Services Centre in the tourism resort city of Victoria Falls.
Listings have been gradual since the VFEX was launched late 2020, before an improvement last year which saw three new entrants.
In an interview with 263Chat Business, VFEX chief executive officer, Justin Bgoni said there is growing interest in the bourse despite a lukewarm start.
“We are getting more comfortable with the VFEX. We have more listings coming up. We are expecting at least 2 on the debt side; on the specialized products we think we will get about 4 that are the ETFs and ADRs that we are looking into and equities maybe another 2. The timing is what we are worried about and we are still hopeful that we will get to 10 at the end of the year but things in Zimbabwe take time.”
He said they are in the process of finalizing several financial instruments which will include the commodity exchange, digital assets exchange and the electricity exchange.
On the electricity exchange, Bgoni said, appetite is already there on the market and they are targeting Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to raise capital as well as large scale electricity users to invest so as to guarantee supply.
“When you generate electricity as an independent power producer you would want a customer that you can sell to so you want to enter into a long term contract and you have to trust that the other person will come through in terms of payment without concerning yourself about whom the other person is. So that is where an exchange helps, it guarantees the payment just as a commodity exchange market,” said Bgoni.
On the digital assets exchange, he said regulations do not permit the trading of crypto-currencies such as the Bitcoin, but suggested that if an issuer would approach them with similar proposals they can only allow for its trading as a commodity and not as a currency.
