FINSEC gets licence for Zimbabwe’s first asset tokenisation market

The Financial Securities Exchange (FINSEC) has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZim) to operate an Asset Tokenisation Market under the Commission’s regulatory sandbox framework. This marks a milestone in the modernisation of Zimbabwe’s capital markets. A regulatory sandbox is a controlled, live-testing environment established by regulators, allowing firms to test innovative products, services, or business models with real consumers for a limited time.

It aims to foster innovation while ensuring consumer protection, allowing regulators to understand new technologies before creating tailored regulations FINSEC is a licensed Alternative Trading Platform (ATP) and a subsidiary of the Escrow Group, launched in 2016 to formalise marginalised market segments. The exchange operates a fully automated electronic platform for the issuance, trading and settlement of securities, including equities and derivatives. Asset tokenisation refers to the process of converting rights or economic interests in physical assets into digital tokens that can be issued, held, traded and settled on regulated digital market infrastructure.

Unlike cryptocurrencies, asset tokens are fully backed by identifiable underlying assets and are issued within established legal, custodial and regulatory frameworks. FINSEC becomes the first regulated market operator in Zimbabwe to offer a formal, supervised platform for the tokenisation of real-world assets and the initiative will begin with property assets and expand into other productive asset classes over time. The approved tokenised asset market infrastructure is designed to unlock liquidity from traditionally illiquid assets, lower barriers to investment through fractional ownership and broaden participation in capital markets for both local and diaspora investors.

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FINSEC chief executive, Mr Collen Tapfumaneyi, said in a statement that the approval by SecZim represents a critical step forward for Zimbabwe’s financial markets. “The asset tokenisation allows us to bring real economic assets such as property and livestock into a regulated digital marketplace where they can be transparently issued, traded and settled, with strong investor protections in place,” he said.

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