C-Trade garners 10k investors online

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ESCROW Financial Solutions (Escrow) says it has added 10 000 new investors to Zimbabwe’s capital markets since the introduction of local mobile trading platform, CTrade, in July last year.
Before the introduction of the platform, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) was said to have only 7 000 active users.
Collen Tapfumaneyi, Escrow’s chief executive, said the introduction of the platform had given the general populace access to all listed securities in the local market.
“Since the launch of CTrade, we have been able to register about 10 000 first time investors,” he told delegates attending the Zimbabwe Financial Inclusion Forum in Harare recently.
“So far, with very little publicity, we have been able to see trading valued at about $1,2 million worth of shares in about 11 000 transactions. It is very rewarding because once we lowered the minimum amount that one can trade in stocks to as little as $10, its very surprising how people have been interested in buying little shares here and there,” he said.
Tapfumaneyi noted that the mobile platform has also endured its fair share of problems when it comes to trading.
“When someone is trying to buy $20 worth of shares, sometimes it is not very easy to get a match,” he said.
CTrade, which works through a simple USSD application, a mobile application and a web portal, has been integrated to the ZSE and FINSEC which are the country’s only formalised securities markets.
FINSEC, which is run and owned by Escrow, is an alternative securities market which was created for those transactions which had previously been sidelined to the Over-The-Counter markets.
“Our alternative trading platform saw the listing of Old Mutual empowerment shares a few years ago which actually benefited quite a lot of people that had been previously excluded. The shares are valued at just over $300 million to date,” Tapfumaneyi noted.
FINSEC last year listed a $5 million micro-bond which was floated by an up and coming microfinance company, Untu Capital. The bond which was floated through a mobile platform, is said to have brought in around 2 000 new investors into the market.
“We have also successful listed IDBZ infrastructure bonds giving access to the retail market to trade these bonds,” said Tapfumaneyi.
Escrow says it is working on other solutions for the local capital market to complement CTrade and FINSEC.