Zimpapers Logo

EDITOR — Meeting President Emmerson Mnangagwa and being awarded a certificate as one of the top investors at the recent C-Trade Mobile online launch held at Meikles Hotel in Harare did not only give Andrew Dewa, a 23-year old student, the exposure he needed, but motivation and confidence to fulfil his dreams.

Dewa is a Banking and Investment Management student at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), who dreams of becoming one of the most elite investment bankers in Zimbabwe and to run his own hedge fund. And after receiving a certificate as one of the top investors, he is certain he will make it.

It all started when Dewa was selected by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZ), along with Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and Escrow Systems, among 60 students from Nust and Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) to participate and invest on the stock exchange.

Like everyone, he was funded with $200 to invest in Zimbabwean companies listed on the ZSE and Finsec and was given a space of four weeks to get the best return possible by doing market analyses, fundamental analyses and financial research so as to invest in the right equity and know when to buy or sell stock.

“During the process, we would identify problems within the system and advice the IT team from Escrow Systems on what was wrong and what needed to be changed to foster more efficiency and user friendliness, hence the development part,” he said.

“What I identified was to do with share prices. Although it wasn’t easy as I had no Wi-Fi and had to travel to the school campus everyday in the early hours, even during holidays, just to participate on the markets at its opening times, I persevered. And with that I came out as the top investor at Nust along with three other colleagues from HIT.”

The other three are Liberty Bote (22), Gabriel Manjonjo (22) and Ashley Goredema (24).

Dewa applauded what the Government has done so far and said it should keep working on projects that empower youths in the country. He also said provision of finance and training workshops for every sector in the economy was essential to people with expertise.

“The Government should also make it easy for companies to list on the stock exchange and Finsec to increase the number of participants and market movement of shares. This will make the stock market more liquid and increase the number of day traders,” he said.

His inspiration are the likes of Dr Lance Mambondiani, CEO of Steward Bank and Charity Jinya MD at Nedbank, to name a few.

Although he is still in his second year and waiting for attachment, his future looks bright.
Rumbidzai Ngwenya