• Justin Bgoni joins ASEA leadership after ZSE Holdings built VFEX, ZEEX and expanded market infrastructure
• The continental role gives Zimbabwe closer access to African exchange integration, cross border liquidity and technology initiatives
• The commercial test will be whether that access converts into foreign participation, cross listings, new capital and deeper trading liquidity

Harare- ZSE Holdings Group Chief Executive Officer Justin Bgoni has been appointed Vice President of the African Securities Exchanges Association effective 2 October 2026, placing the head of Zimbabwe’s three exchange platforms closer to the centre of Africa’s capital market integration agenda at a time his own group is expanding beyond the traditional Zimbabwe Stock Exchange into dollar markets, SME finance and new financial infrastructure.

Bgoni currently oversees the ZSE, Victoria Falls Stock Exchange and Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Exchange, and also serves as interim chief executive of the Victoria Falls International Financial Centre.

In a statement, ASEA said Bgoni’s appointment comes as African exchanges deepen collaboration, expand inter exchange liquidity and work towards more seamless cross border investment frameworks, with technology driven market infrastructure forming part of the association’s strategic agenda. The continental body currently represents 25 exchanges across 37 African countries, covering more than 1,100 listed companies and about US$2 trillion in market capitalisation.

“Capital markets have a pivotal role to play in unlocking economic growth, facilitating sustainable investments, and strengthening regional connectivity across Africa,” Bgoni said. He said his focus would include accelerating capital mobility and developing financial infrastructure suited to Africa’s market requirements.

The appointment lands after several years in which ZSE Holdings has gradually changed from the operator of a single domestic equities market into a wider market infrastructure group. VFEX was launched in October 2020 as a US dollar denominated exchange, ZSE Holdings listed its own shares on the ZSE in July 2025, the group integrated into the SWIFT financial messaging network, introduced securities backed lending with FBC Crown Bank and subsequently developed ZEEX as a separate capital raising route for smaller businesses.

That record is particularly relevant because some of the initiatives Bgoni discussed before implementation have since moved from proposal into operating infrastructure. In an earlier exclusive interview with Equity Axis, Bgoni outlined plans for an SME focused exchange and also discussed crypto trading as part of the group’s longer term product diversification agenda.

The SME commitment has since become ZEEX. SECZ approved the Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Exchange in June 2026, initially structured around Private Markets for structured capital raising and Public Markets for SME listings and secondary trading, after ZSE Holdings spent months building relationships with financiers, asset managers and enterprise development institutions.

By July, the group had assembled five institutional partnerships, trained prospective issuers and developed a platform architecture extending beyond conventional equity listings into private capital raising, receivables financing, debt products and tokenisation. ZEEX subsequently launched with Private Markets, Public Markets, Invoice X and ZSE Debtbridge, giving ZSE Holdings a platform aimed at businesses that historically sat outside the listed market because of scale, governance requirements and listing costs.

Crypto trading remains the more ambitious part of the earlier product agenda. ZSE Holdings has not announced a crypto trading product in the official material reviewed to date, leaving that plan as an outstanding test of the group’s ability to extend market infrastructure into regulated digital assets once the policy and regulatory framework permits.

The broader market architecture has already become more segmented. ZEEX targets emerging businesses and SMEs, the ZSE remains the principal ZiG denominated securities market, and VFEX provides a US dollar platform for companies and investors seeking hard currency pricing, settlement and capital raising.

VFEX has become economically important to the group. During the first half of 2026, the exchange generated about US$1.34 million in operating profit and accounted for approximately 74.6% of ZSE Holdings’ operating profit despite contributing about 38% of external revenue, with its operating margin reaching 68.6% against 15.1% at the ZSE.

The performance gives Bgoni’s continental appointment a stronger commercial context. ZSE Holdings is entering ASEA leadership with a functioning US dollar exchange, a domestic currency market, an SME platform and central securities depository infrastructure that can potentially be connected to wider African trading and settlement networks.

The immediate continental opportunity sits in ASEA’s African Exchanges Linkage Project. AELP was established with the African Development Bank to connect African securities markets through order routing, shared market information and cross border trading, with the first platform linking seven exchanges representing about 2,000 listed securities and roughly US$1.5 trillion in market capitalisation.

The project is designed to move progressively from broker connectivity towards regulatory alignment, research sharing and eventually pan African capital raising. A second phase was structured to expand access towards as many as 15 African capital markets, with the long term objective of allowing investors to reach securities across national exchanges through connected infrastructure.

Zimbabwe was not among the original seven AELP exchanges. Bgoni’s elevation does not automatically place the ZSE or VFEX into the linkage network, though it moves Zimbabwean exchange leadership directly into the institution overseeing that continental integration programme.

That distinction defines the value of the appointment for Zimbabwe. The position becomes commercially useful when Zimbabwean brokers gain easier access to African markets, foreign brokers can access Zimbabwean securities through connected systems, local issuers gain credible routes towards cross listings and capital raising, and settlement infrastructure reduces the friction involved in moving capital between jurisdictions.

ASEA has already been working with the Pan African Payment and Settlement System to improve payments around cross border securities transactions, an initiative first formalised through an agreement signed in Victoria Falls in 2023. The combination of AELP order routing and improved settlement infrastructure addresses two of the practical barriers that keep African securities markets fragmented even where investors can identify opportunities across borders.

VFEX could carry particular relevance within that architecture because it already operates in US dollars and was established partly to attract international capital. Its growth has also shown that Zimbabwean issuers are willing to use a separate exchange structure when the currency, tax and settlement framework better matches their underlying businesses.

The ZSE faces a different task. Its market capitalisation has contracted materially from the levels recorded in 2021 as several large companies migrated to VFEX or exited the main board, and the exchange has responded by reducing the minimum market capitalisation requirement for new listings from US$10 million to US$1 million, lowering the minimum free float requirement from 30% to 10% and reducing selected listing costs.

Those reforms lower the entry barrier for issuers, although deeper liquidity still requires a larger investor pool. Cross border market access becomes relevant because a thinner domestic savings pool places a natural ceiling on how much liquidity can be created solely by changing listing rules.

Bgoni’s ASEA role therefore intersects directly with one of the ZSE’s most persistent problems. Connecting domestic securities to a larger African investor universe can improve price discovery and expand potential demand, provided settlement, currency conversion, custody and repatriation arrangements allow investors to move capital efficiently.

ZSE Holdings has also been building some of the infrastructure required for that transition. Its integration into SWIFT placed the group inside a globally used financial messaging network, while the ZSE and VFEX depositories have expanded their role beyond custody through securities backed lending arrangements that allow investors to pledge listed assets for financing without selling them.

The group’s own self listing in July 2025 added another layer to that strategy by placing the exchange operator under the same public market disclosure and shareholder disciplines it requires from issuers. The listing created a listed holding company above the ZSE and VFEX, providing a corporate structure through which additional market infrastructure businesses can be developed or acquired.

ZEEX extends that structure further down the corporate lifecycle. A successful SME can theoretically raise private capital through ZEEX, progress towards a public listing and eventually graduate into the ZSE or VFEX as its governance, revenue base and capital requirements expand.

The continental layer gives that architecture another possible destination. An SME that develops into a larger Zimbabwean company would gain more value from public market participation if its investor universe eventually extends beyond domestic institutions into brokers and investors connected through African exchange networks.

That outcome will require more than Bgoni holding a continental executive position. Zimbabwe’s market performance will have to be measured through foreign investor turnover, new listings, cross border broker connections, capital raised, secondary market liquidity and the number of issuers able to access investors beyond the domestic savings pool.

The same execution standard applies to the group’s unfinished product agenda. ZEEX has moved from Bgoni’s earlier commitment into an operating platform, VFEX has developed into the strongest earnings unit inside ZSE Holdings and digital infrastructure has expanded through SWIFT and depository services. Crypto trading remains an outstanding ambition whose eventual delivery will depend on regulation, investor protection and an infrastructure model capable of handling digital assets within a supervised market.

Bgoni’s move into ASEA leadership consequently arrives after ZSE Holdings has already built the domestic pieces of a more diversified exchange group. The next stage is connectivity, converting three Zimbabwean markets and their supporting infrastructure into platforms that can access deeper pools of African capital rather than operating mainly inside the limits of domestic liquidity.

For Zimbabwe, that is the practical relevance of the ASEA appointment. Its value will be established when continental integration begins producing measurable capital flows into ZSE, VFEX and ZEEX, giving Zimbabwean issuers access to investors beyond the country’s borders and turning market integration from an institutional objective into actual liquidity.

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