eBusiness Weekly
Panashe Nyamudeza and Sandra Maziwisa
Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) listed, Caledonia Mining Corporation-Blanket Gold Mine’s parent firm yesterday became the third company to list its shares on the US dollar-denominated Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX).
The listing of Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc on VFEX yesterday, after Padenga and Seed Co earlier, coincided with the official opening of the bourse, which was officially commissioned by President Mnangagwa.
In his speech, President Mnangagwa said the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange is expected to drive domestic and international investments which are a key requirement for the attainment of “our vision of a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income economy by 2030’’.
“I particularly want to encourage our micro, small and medium enterprises to consider listing on these stock exchanges in their numbers, as this is the surest way to raise long-term capital for growth,” he said.
Speaking at the same occasion, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube celebrated the official opening of the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange Limited and the listing of Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc.
The Treasury chief said, “ordinarily, a listing takes any time from 6 months to 18 months, and VFEX is only a year old, but the exchange has already witnessed 3 listings since it was established last year.”
Ncube said such milestones were indeed commendable and that showed the response to and appreciation of the incentives the Government had put in place to support domestic capital markets.
He said he was pleased to witness the growth of VFEX, which the Treasury introduced to attract global capital and boost confidence in the domestic capital markets, in terms of both new listings and strategic partnerships.
The minister said the recently introduced incremental export retention scheme had been helpful in getting the likes of Padenga and Caledonia to consider listing on the VFEX, which trades exclusively in US dollars.
In line with National Development Strategy 1 (NDS 1) and Vision 2030, the Treasury has worked tirelessly to help ZImbabwe’s capital markets contribute to the achievement of middle-income economies.
The VFEX recently signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) aimed at strengthening bilateral co-operation as well as the exchange knowledge around commodities trading.
“VFEX has followed through on this MOU and last month they held a joint workshop with DGCX to explore the modalities of setting up a commodities exchange as part of expanding the VFEX offerings,” Ncube said.
Commodity exchanges help to provide a minerals market and provide risk management mechanisms through derivative products such as commodity futures contracts.
Ncube said revitalising domestic value chains and growing value addition was a game-changer for Zimbabwe, and Government was constantly exploring strategies that promote value in addition to different sectors of the economy.
He also said the capital market had supplemented policy measures and become a transmission mechanism for them to measure the vitality of policies and applauded Caledonia shareholders and management for having confidence in their efforts and making the step to list on VFEX.
“This is definitely not just a sign of confidence in our policies as the government but a significant statement signifying that investors are supportive of our aspirations as a country,” he said.
He further highlighted that public listing is also a way for investors to empower local citizens and provide them with investment opportunities to participate in the development of listed companies.
The Treasury says it will continue to work on policies that support the national vision of inclusive economic growth and is encouraging other companies to take advantage of the friendly environment that has been created.
Incentives to encourage investment have not only been rolled out for the VFEX, but also the broader economy, to grow local businesses, including through utilising the capital markets for capital finance.
