Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has priced a CHF 350 million five-year digital bond, making it the first African institution to issue a tokenised security listed, traded and settled on a regulated digital exchange. The bond is also the largest digital bond ever issued in the Swiss Franc market, and AFC’s fourth Swiss Franc issuance overall, following its inaugural CHF 150 million green bond in 2020.
The bond carries a coupon of 1.4925% and was issued under AFC’s US$5 billion Global Medium-Term Note Programme. It is admitted for trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange and deposited with SIX Digital Exchange, using the clearing and settlement infrastructure operated by SIX SIS AG. Commerzbank AG acted as technical lead arranger, with Deutsche Bank AG London Branch acting through its Zurich branch as co-arranger.
Deal structure and investor demand
The bond is structured as a tokenised security using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), with ownership recorded on a regulated digital register and settlement conducted through regulated digital market infrastructure. This is a meaningful distinction from earlier experimental digital bond pilots: it places the instrument within an established regulatory perimeter rather than a sandbox or bilateral arrangement.
The orderbook skewed heavily domestic, with approximately 90% of demand from Swiss investors and the remainder from international accounts. Banks and financial services institutions accounted for 57% of allocations, followed by asset managers at 37% and hedge funds at 6%. The concentration of bank demand may reflect the instrument’s DLT settlement format, which aligns with treasury systems already connected to SIX Digital Exchange infrastructure.
AFC holds a dual investment grade rating: an A rating with a positive outlook from S&P, and A3 with a stable outlook from Moody’s. Samaila Zubairu, president and chief executive, said the transaction “underscores the confidence global investors continue to place in our strategy, credit strength, and development impact,” adding that diversifying the funding toolkit remains central to mobilising long-term financing for Africa’s industrialisation agenda.
Market and regulatory context
The Swiss digital bond market has emerged as one of the few jurisdictions where tokenised securities can be issued, settled and traded entirely within a regulated perimeter, following the Federal Council‘s amendments to Swiss financial market law that came into force in 2021 and enabled DLT-based securities under the country’s civil code. That framework distinguishes Switzerland from most other markets, where tokenised bond pilots typically rely on bilateral settlement or separate custodian arrangements outside the core exchange infrastructure.
For AFC, the transaction matters beyond the headline size. Development finance institutions across Africa have historically relied on Eurobond issuances and multilateral credit lines, both of which carry conventional settlement infrastructure and cost structures. Accessing the Swiss DLT market signals an intent to tap a broader pool of institutional capital, particularly from Swiss domestic banks and asset managers whose mandates skew toward investment grade, shorter-duration instruments.
The proceeds will support AFC’s general funding requirements and its stated mandate to finance infrastructure across power, transport, heavy industry, natural resources and telecommunications across the continent. The corporation has invested US$18.5 billion across Africa since its founding in 2007 and counts 48 member countries. The forward question is whether this issuance serves as a template for other African sovereign or quasi-sovereign borrowers to access DLT-based capital markets, or whether AFC’s dual investment grade rating and institutional profile make it a difficult precedent to replicate.
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