By Tadiwa Jery
“The only time you would hear about the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange was during the 8 o’clock news on ZBC, if you even watch ZBC”. These are the words of one of the ZSE stock traders in an interview with Alphavisionzim.
The graphs and red and green arrows associated with the ZSE made most people lose interest in learning about stock exchange. It all seemed too complex to understand. With the ZBC and the Herald losing traction with the younger generation, ZSE investment went down.
In 2018, Zimbabwe launched the C-Trade, an automated trading platform, which effectively opened capital markets to all and enhanced financial inclusion.
The C-Trade application which can be downloaded on Google play and Apple store offered a simpler and more convenient way for traders to monitor their investments and the market trends. By offering services like order management, portfolio management, order routing and real-time market data access, it did not take the application long to be well known throughout the stock trading industry in Zimbabwe.
The launch of C-Trade has also significantly improved participation of small retail investors on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) accounting for more than 50 percent of volumes in the first half of 2021.
Although values still remain low, C-Trade has been a significant volume pusher and the trend is continuing in the second half of the year. The launch of C-Trade gave ZSE the chance to receive more investors in Zimbabwe as trading became simplified.
With the growing appreciation of financial literacy among the youth in Zimbabwe, the future of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange looks brighter than it did before the launch of C-Trade.
