Africa Finance Corporation has raised CHF 350 million on the Swiss market using a bond that exists as a token on a distributed ledger rather than as a conventional register entry. It is the first time an African institution has issued a digital bond that is listed, traded and settled on a regulated digital exchange.
The Lagos, Nigeria-headquartered infrastructure financier announced the 5-year issue on 12 August 2026. At CHF 350 million it is also the largest digital bond yet sold in the Swiss Franc market, and AFC’s fourth and biggest Swiss Franc transaction.
What makes it a digital bond
A digital bond behaves like any other bond for the investor, paying a coupon and repaying at maturity. The difference is in the plumbing. Ownership is recorded on a regulated digital register built on distributed ledger technology, the shared database design behind blockchains, instead of passing through the chain of custodians a traditional issue relies on.
The bond is admitted for trading and listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange and deposited with SIX Digital Exchange, the clearing and settlement system operated by SIX SIS AG. It was issued under AFC’s $5 billion Global Medium-Term Note Programme and arranged by Commerzbank as technical lead, alongside Deutsche Bank’s London branch acting through its Zurich branch.
The practical claim for the format is faster settlement and fewer intermediaries. Whether those savings materialise at scale is still being tested across the market, which is why most digital bonds to date have been small and experimental.
Pricing and demand
The bond priced at a coupon of 1.4925%, which AFC said sits within the pricing of the $500 million benchmark it issued in June 2026. The corporation holds an ‘A’ rating with a positive outlook from S&P and A3 with a stable outlook from Moody’s.
Demand came overwhelmingly from inside Switzerland, at roughly 90% of the book, with 10% from international accounts. Banks and financial institutions took 57%, asset managers 37% and hedge funds 6%.
That distribution matters more than the headline. A Swiss-dominated, bank-heavy order book suggests the issue was bought as conventional high-grade credit that happens to settle digitally, rather than by investors seeking exposure to the technology.
Why AFC keeps returning to Switzerland
This is AFC’s fourth Swiss Franc issue. It follows the CHF 150 million bond the corporation sold in 2020, its first green bond. Swiss Franc funding gives the corporation a currency and investor base separate from the dollar market where most African issuers raise money.
“This transaction is about far more than achieving competitive pricing,” said Samaila Zubairu, President and Chief Executive of AFC, describing the raise as evidence of investor confidence in the corporation’s credit strength and development mandate.
Banji Fehintola, Executive Board Member and Head of Financial Services, was more direct about the format. “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,” he said.
Where the money goes
AFC said the proceeds go to general funding rather than a ring-fenced project, strengthening its capacity to finance infrastructure across the continent. The corporation was established in 2007, has 48 member countries, and reports $18.5 billion invested since its inception across power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications.
Its recent activity has reached further into technology. In May 2026, it committed $100 million to African venture capital funds, a departure from the hard infrastructure it is known for.
The raise lands in a year of larger and more varied debt-raising by African infrastructure operators. Liquid Intelligent Technologies closed a $660 million refinancing anchored by a $300 million Eurobond in April, and smaller operators have turned to bond markets too, with Dimension Data raising $2.9 million for Nigerian fibre in August.
What a first African digital issue does not yet answer is whether the format reaches borrowers who need it most. AFC arrived with an investment-grade rating and an established Swiss following. The test will be whether tokenised settlement lowers the cost of capital for issuers without either.
Leave a Reply