The Victoria Falls Exchange came about in the strangest possible way you can imagine. In case you have forgotten, it all started because the government, which keeps wanting to fix the exchange rate we use, did not like how people were relying on the so-called Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR). So they decided to remove the fungibility of Old Mutual (not Old Mutual ZW) shares.
Stopping an institution from trading its shares did not make sense even to the powers be so they decided to create a whole new bourse dedicated to such international securities. Thus the VFEX, as it is known was born. It has been operating for a year now under the watchful guise of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange but the truth is the exchange has been playing second fiddle to the main much more popular exchange in Harare and battling relevance issues.
One main reason for this is ignorance. Many people are not even aware the VFEX exists and those that do kind of dismiss the exchange as nothing more than a gimmick. It’s a viewpoint various stakeholders of the VFEX are keen to change. They want investors both domestic and international to start taking the exchange seriously.
To aid with that, the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange and Business Weekly in partnership with several financial institutions such as CABS, CBZ, BancABC, Bethel Equitites, Lynton Edwards, FBC and IHGroup are hosting a virtual panel that is meant to be a primer on how to get started on the VFEX. The good news for us couch potatoes is you don’t even have to leave your couch to “attend.” The whole thing is being held via MS Teams.
Good out of evil
I never thought I would say this but one good thing about the COVID-19 pandemic is how it has forced people to adopt and normalise virtual meetings and virtual seminars. Prior to the pandemic the geriatrics and technophobes that lead most of the world’s organisations would always find a reason to push away the idea of meeting remotely.
Even Zimbabwean business leaders seem to be embracing the trend. Hopefully, this will outlast the current pandemic.
