THE Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) carries strategic value for Zimbabwe’s economic transformation and must be fully positioned to compete with global resource capital markets such as Australia and Toronto, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has said.
Addressing delegates at the Zimbabwe Economic Development Conference in Bulawayo last week, Prof Ncube underscored that international financial centres are insulated from currency shifts, making VFEX a long-term, stable investment platform.
“International Financial Centers are immune to change in cards (currency). By law, these are US dollar platforms, please take advantage of them. They are here to stay and that is why we created them because we wanted to create advantage for Zimbabwe,” he said.
Prof Ncube noted that VFEX was specifically designed to give Zimbabwean firms a competitive advantage by creating a globally trusted, hard currency-denominated exchange, particularly for sectors such as mining and exploration that require access to international capital.
“I have had long discussions with the management at International Financial Center and VFX about how we can even better position this platform.
“ It is clear that with VFX, we have to compete with Australia and Toronto. These are platforms where you raise capital for exploration. We have to really position, you are raising US$10 million, US$15 million, not very, very big sums of money and then that is then going for exploration purposes,” he said.
He welcomed the listing of Invictus Energy on VFEX as a positive signal that the platform is moving in the right direction, stressing that the exchange must become a preferred destination for regional and international players.
“So I was very pleased that Invictus listed on VFX, because that is exactly how the stock exchange could position itself. But we have to make sure that the fees, broker fees and whatever, the fees and so forth, match or are better than Australia and Toronto.
“That’s the only way we can succeed, so this is clearly something that we are underplaying. It’s a big deal. Let’s play this up as an advantage,” said Prof Ncube.
By strengthening VFEX, Zimbabwe aims to attract exploration capital, deepen international investor confidence, and transform Victoria Falls into a fully-fledged international financial hub. – Herald
