Will Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls Stock Exchange lose its Magic? Here’s what we know

The VFEX or Victoria Falls Stock Exchange is Zimbabwe's exclusively United States dollar only stock market which was launched 3 years ago. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange or ZSE's main board has been shrinking because of companies migrating to the VFEX. Companies in Zimbabwe constantly experience a shortage of foreign exchange to support their increasingly import reliant businesses. The number of companies that are delisting from the main board of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, often known as the ZSE, and moving their operations to the ZSE's hard currency equivalent, the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX), has been growing. When the central bank eliminated the favorable foreign exchange retention levels that had been the primary draw of the VFEX, it is anticipated that the outflow from the ZSE will slow down in 2023. This comes after the central bank eliminated the foreign exchange retention thresholds. Is Victoria Falls Stock Exchange capital market innovation or regulatory haven? Companies were leaving the ZSE in large numbers to take advantage of the concessions and favorable foreign exchange retentions from listing on the VFEX. The central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has scrapped these benefits and placed uniform foreign exchange retentions across all sectors of