The launch of the Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Exchange, ZEEX, is a welcome development and deserves serious support. At its best, it opens a pathway for local and diaspora entrepreneurs with strong ideas, credible businesses and growth ambitions to access a formal market without having to fit the mould of the traditional large listed company.
The concept can still be strengthened. The RBZ and the banking sector should allow more lending against listed scrip. A real credit market around these securities would give entrepreneurs a practical reason to list. Without that, many will remain informal, wary that a higher profile attracts Zimra, political attention and administrative harassment before it attracts capital.
The ZSE should also be allowed to trade in both currencies. Zimbabwe is a multicurrency economy. If a supermarket till can accept different currencies, there is no convincing reason why ZSE counters cannot do the same. VFEX is already exclusively USD. The ZSE should become genuinely multicurrency.
There is also the matter of trust. The past still haunts the ZSE. Old Mutual and PPC remain unlisted after arbitrary interventions that investors and issuers have not forgotten. Markets live on confidence, precedent and memory. Treasury can help ZEEX build credibility by lifting these restrictions and signalling that listed securities will be treated with consistency, legality and respect.
ZEEX is a good idea. It now needs the market architecture around it to match the ambition.