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Strive Masiyiwa, the Zimbabwean billionaire founder of Econet Wireless, has engineered a generational shift in his home country's capital markets, with the upstart US dollar-denominated Victoria Falls Stock Exchange overtaking the 132-year-old Zimbabwe Stock Exchange by market value after the $1 billion listing of his infrastructure vehicle Econet InfraCo.
VFEX, set up during a currency crisis in 2020 to attract hard-currency investment into Zimbabwe, passed the ZSE in aggregate market capitalization after Econet InfraCo debuted on March 31, according to Bloomberg data reported on April 16. The listing values the infrastructure spinoff at $1 billion and accounts for almost a quarter of the younger exchange's total market value on its own, cementing a rout that has accelerated since Econet Wireless moved off the ZSE late last year.
The shift is the clearest signal yet of a broader exodus from the local-currency-quoted ZSE, where investors have long argued that Zimbabwe dollar volatility and capital controls mask the true value of listed companies. VFEX trades entirely in US dollars, offers lower capital gains tax and is designed to appeal to regional and international investors who had largely avoided the older exchange in recent years.
Masiyiwa's move carries particular symbolic weight. Econet Wireless had been the ZSE's largest, most liquid and most internationally recognized counter since 1998, and his decision to unwind that structure in favor of an infrastructure holding company on VFEX was fiercely contested. Shareholders pushed back on the delisting terms earlier this year before broker-backed valuation work cleared the way for the transaction to proceed.
Econet InfraCo now houses the group's tower portfolio, fibre assets and a growing data center footprint, and has been positioned as the anchor vehicle for Masiyiwa's longer-term plans in Zimbabwe. Those include the recently announced Econet Tech City near Harare airport, a planned 40-villa luxury resort in Victoria Falls and further data center capacity inside the Tech City precinct.
The VFEX milestone has sharpened pressure on the ZSE, which has seen several counters consider migration to the Victoria Falls market. Policymakers have already eased cross-listing rules to slow the drain, but the weight of Masiyiwa's listings tips the balance in favor of the newer exchange and leaves Zimbabwe's oldest market facing an identity crisis.
Masiyiwa personally benefits from the transition, which locks in US dollar-denominated valuation for the bulk of his Zimbabwe holdings and reduces his exposure to the local currency, a shift analysts expect to support his net worth in hard-currency terms.
