Collen Tapfumaneyi’s innovative platforms are helping democratize the stock market in Zimbabwe. Eager to move some shares into Old Mutual Zimbabwe bank on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, Godfrey Koti was thrilled to learn about C-Trade on the radio one morning in January. The first service in Africa to offer combined desktop, mobile app and text message stock trading, C-Trade “has transformed the way we do business in Zimbabwe, without a doubt,” says Koti, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority’s head of corporate affairs. Being able to swap shares via the app “has made life much easier,” he says. For a country with sinking GDP, soaring inflation and a foreign currency crisis, successfully managing one’s financial life here can be difficult. Lining up is becoming a national pastime — for both banks and fuel. But the innovations forged by Collen Tapfumaneyi, who created C-Trade last year after launching the country’s first alternative trading platform, the Financial Securities Exchange (Finsec), could help lift Zimbabwe from its economic doldrums. Their popularity is spreading quickly around the region. | 