The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation (SMEDCO) have signed a new partnership aimed at unlocking formal financing for the country’s startups and small businesses through the Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Exchange (ZEEX).
Announced in Harare on 23 June 2026, the Memorandum of Understanding brings together ZSE’s capital market infrastructure and SMEDCO’s nationwide SME network. The goal is to create a structured route for emerging businesses to access funding, improve governance, and formalise operations.
Under the agreement, the two institutions will work across five areas. First, they will expand access to capital by connecting SMEDCO’s enterprise networks with ZSE’s market platform. Second, they will support growth and formalisation through onboarding programs, compliance guidance, and governance training. Third, they will develop financing instruments designed for high-growth businesses that do not yet meet traditional listing requirements. Fourth, they will strengthen the broader SME ecosystem with a focus on making more enterprises investment-ready for ZEEX. Finally, the partnership will promote financial inclusion by widening access to capital markets for entrepreneurs across Zimbabwe.
ZSE Holdings Group CEO Justin Bgoni said the deal goes beyond capital markets and is about economic transformation. He noted that SMEDCO brings a development mandate aligned with ZEEX’s inclusive vision, and that combining grassroots reach with ZSE’s regulatory framework creates a genuine onramp for businesses historically locked out of formal financing. He added that properly supported formalisation is one of the strongest drivers of sustainable growth.
SMEDCO CEO Obert Ngwenya said access to finance remains the biggest challenge for Zimbabwe’s startups and SMEs. He called the partnership an important step toward sustainable financing pathways that drive growth, innovation, and jobs. Through ZEEX, he said, businesses will not only access capital but also strengthen governance and become investment-ready. By merging SMEDCO’s development finance expertise with ZSE’s market infrastructure, the two aim to build an ecosystem that helps entrepreneurs scale and contribute to national economic transformation.
ZEEX is a newly approved digital capital market platform designed to accelerate formalisation and deepen financial inclusion. It enables primary-market fundraising, asset tokenization, and secondary-market trading in one regulated venue, bringing SMEs and invoice-discounting instruments into a transparent ecosystem to broaden the investor base and lower capital costs.
SMEDCO is a Development Finance Institution mandated to promote micro, small, and medium enterprises and cooperatives through financial and non-financial services, training, capacity building, and affordable workspace infrastructure.
