African financial company issues first $431 million digital bond

Africa Finance Corporation has raised 350 million Swiss francs or about $431 million, through its first digital bond, becoming the first African institution to issue such debt through a regulated exchange and central securities depository.

AFC digital bond raises $431 million

Ledger Insights reported that Africa Finance Corporation issued the five-year bond through SIX, using its SDX digital platform for clearing and settlement. The transaction represents the first digital bond from an African institution to be processed through both a regulated exchange and a central securities depository.

Priced with a coupon of 1.4925%, the 350 million-franc bond is among the larger digital debt issues completed through the Swiss platform. UBS issued a 375 million-franc digital bond in 2022, according to Ledger Insights.

AFC separately described its offering as the largest Swiss franc-denominated digital bond from an international issuer. The company said it was also its fourth and largest bond issued in Swiss francs, following a 150 million-franc green bond completed in 2020.

Investor demand came mainly from Switzerland, with domestic accounts contributing about 90% of the orders and international investors providing the remaining 10%, according to AFC. Banks and other financial companies accounted for 57% of the order book, while asset managers represented 37% and hedge funds contributed 6%.

The bond was issued under AFC’s $5 billion Global Medium-Term Note Programme. Under the structure, the debt is represented as a tokenized security, while ownership details are kept on a regulated digital register using distributed ledger technology.

Trading and listing take place on the SIX Swiss Exchange, with the security deposited at SIX Digital Exchange. SIX SIS AG operates the clearing and settlement system used for the transaction.

Commerzbank AG served as the technical lead, while Deutsche Bank AG’s London branch participated through its Zurich branch. AFC said proceeds from the sale would cover its general funding needs and support its financing of infrastructure projects in Africa.

Digital format keeps the bond inside regulated markets

Unlike a crypto token issued through an open blockchain platform, AFC’s bond uses regulated market infrastructure for ownership records, trading, and settlement. Investors are buying a debt security issued by AFC, with the digital system changing how the bond is recorded and processed rather than the financial claim itself.

Banji Fehintola, an AFC executive board member and head of financial services, said the digital structure was “not an end in itself” but part of the company’s effort to diversify its sources of funding.

“The digital format of this bond is not an end in itself but a signal of our commitment to being at the frontier of innovation in the capital markets as we continue to diversify and strengthen AFC’s funding base to support Africa’s development.”

AFC President and CEO Samaila Zubairu said the deal also showed continued investor confidence in the institution’s credit profile and development strategy. According to the company, S&P Global rates AFC at A with a positive outlook, while Moody’s gives it an A3 rating with a stable outlook.

Before the digital sale, AFC returned to the international bond market in July with a $500 million, five-year senior unsecured Eurobond. The corporation said the digital issue secured funding at a level within the pricing of the earlier dollar benchmark.

Operating as a multilateral finance institution, AFC funds projects in power, transport, telecommunications, natural resources, and heavy industry. The organization was established in 2007 and now counts 48 African countries as members. It says it has invested $19 billion across the continent since its creation.

SIX combines digital and traditional settlement

AFC completed the issuance after Switzerland’s financial regulator approved a change to the structure of SIX’s digital asset operations. In May, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority allowed SIX Digital Exchange AG, its digital central securities depository, to merge into SIX SIS AG.

SIX said the consolidation placed its services for traditional and digital securities under one legal entity. FINMA also approved crypto custody through the combined central securities depository, allowing financial institutions to use the same regulated provider for conventional assets and certain digital assets.

The exchange operator launched SDX as a regulated market for securities issued and settled through distributed ledger technology. The platform has since hosted digital bonds from banks, public bodies and international institutions.

In November 2024, crypto.news covered Lugano’s third blockchain bond, a 120 million-franc issue listed on both SDX and the main SIX Swiss Exchange. Lugano had issued three such bonds worth a combined 320 million francs over two years.

The city’s third bond formed part of Project Helvetia, a Swiss National Bank pilot that tested settlement using wholesale central bank digital currency. Ledger Insights noted that AFC’s announcement did not identify wholesale central bank digital currency as part of its transaction.

AFC’s deal also ended a pause in new digital bond activity on SIX, where the previous issuance was completed by German development bank KfW in June 2025, according to Ledger Insights.

U.S. market follows a regulated tokenization path

American financial institutions are testing a comparable model in which blockchain records sit within existing securities infrastructure. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation planned to begin limited production transactions in July 2026, before a full tokenization service targeted for October.

As previously reported in May, DTCC formed a working group of more than 50 traditional finance and digital-asset companies. Participants include BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Circle, Nasdaq and NYSE Group.

DTCC said the initial service could cover Russell 1000 stocks, major index-tracking exchange-traded funds, and U.S. Treasury securities held in its custody. Its subsidiary DTC received a three-year no-action letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2025 for the defined tokenization service.

For U.S. investors, the SEC’s position means representing a financial instrument on a blockchain does not remove it from securities rules. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in April that a stock remains a stock whether it appears on paper, through a DTCC entry, or as a blockchain token.

Meanwhile, U.S. transfer agents asked the SEC in July to distinguish securities created with an issuer’s approval from third-party tokens that merely track an asset. The groups said regulated systems should preserve accurate ownership records, transfer controls, dividend rights, and investor protections.