Online Reporter
Nelson Gahadza
Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation (SMEDCO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a bid to widen access to capital for startups and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) through the Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Exchange (ZEEX).
This will deepen financial inclusion and accelerate the formalisation of emerging businesses.
The agreement also seeks to bridge longstanding financing gaps that have constrained the growth of Zimbabwe’s SME sector, which contributes significantly to economic activity and employment but continues to struggle to access affordable and sustainable funding.
Under the partnership, ZSE and SMEDCO will leverage their respective strengths to create a structured pathway that enables promising businesses to become investment-ready and access funding through Zimbabwe’s capital markets.
The collaboration will focus on enterprise formalisation, governance development, compliance support and the creation of innovative financing instruments tailored to the needs of businesses that may not yet qualify for traditional market participation.
The initiative will be implemented through ZEEX, a recently approved digital capital markets platform designed to provide startups and SMEs with alternative fundraising channels.
ZSE Holdings group chief executive officer Mr Justin Bgoni said the partnership represented more than a conventional financing arrangement, describing it as a strategic intervention aimed at transforming the economy.
“SMEDCO brings something that no purely commercial partner can replicate, a development mandate that is fundamentally aligned with the inclusive vision of ZEEX.
“This partnership is about more than capital markets; it is about economic transformation. By combining SMEDCO’s reach into Zimbabwe’s grassroots enterprise sector with the regulatory framework and infrastructure of ZSE, we are constructing a genuine on-ramp for businesses that have long been locked out of formal financing,” he said.
He added that properly supported formalisation remained one of the most powerful drivers of sustainable economic growth.
SMEDCO chief executive officer Mr Obert Ngwenya said limited access to finance was one of the biggest obstacles facing startups and SMEs in Zimbabwe.
“This partnership with the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange marks an important step towards creating sustainable financing pathways for emerging enterprises that have the potential to drive economic growth, innovation and job creation,” Mr Ngwenya said.
