Zimbabweans can buy Dangote shares, but not quite through an app

A Zimbabwean investor can buy into Africa’s biggest-ever initial public offering (IPO), but the journey starts with paperwork, approvals and a bank transfer, not an app.

Bard Santner Investors (BSI), a Zimbabwean asset management firm, is facilitating the country’s participation in Dangote Refinery’s $1.6 billion IPO, giving local investors access to a share sale that opened to investors across Africa on September 14. But the process also reveals how much of cross-border investing remains manual even as fintech platforms make…