NSE inks deal with Tether to advance digital asset training, finance market innovation

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has marked a milestone after securing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tether, a global fintech leader.

In a statement released on Monday, the NSE noted that the MoU seeks to explore digital asset education, tokenization and financial market innovation in Nairobi.

NSE believes that this collaboration will bridge the knowledge gap and equip Kenyan investors with the skills and confidence to be active participants in the evolving digital economy.

NSE Chief Executive Officer Frank Mwiti said that the partnership is fully aligned with their 2025–2029 Strategic Plan, which is anchored on leveraging technology, deepening global market participation, and expanding access to investment opportunities for all investors.

"By collaborating with Tether, we are exploring innovative technologies that have the potential to modernize market infrastructure, enhance operational efficiency, and broaden investor access while maintaining the highest standards of market integrity and regulatory compliance," said Mwiti.

Tether CEO Paolo Adriono lauded the move as an expansion of using digital assets in cross-border institutions.

“This is what true freedom means, and we are happy to collaborate with the Nairobi Securities Exchange even further to promote practical institutional use cases and technological advancement to optimize operations and enable efficient, transparent, accountable, and sustainable processes in the stock exchange while ensuring data protection and privacy,” Adriono said.

The partnership is set to deliver a structured investor education program comprising training programs, workshops and knowledge-sharing initiatives for NSE-Listed brokers and retail investors.

“Another key area of focus is the potential development of Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization, leveraging the Hadron platform's capabilities to support the issuance and trading of tokenized securities and other financial instruments. To enhance market efficiency and optimize post-trade processes,” read the statement in part.

“Tether will support the exploration of instant and atomic settlement mechanisms aimed at reducing the current settlement cycle.”

Additionally, the MoU aims to support the development of a blockchain-based market infrastructure for the tokenization and instant settlement of securities on the NSE using Distributed Ledger Technology while enabling fractionalized  access to securities for both local and diaspora investors through the Hadron platform.

Tether and the NSE have planned to design and pilot a secure on-boarding solution tailored to the Kenyan regulatory environment to streamline Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes.

Tether is a pioneer in stable-coin technology and has created the largest liquid stable-coin in the industry, popularly known as USDT.