Maldives establishes National Exchange Limited by presidential decree

The President’s Office has established National Exchange Limited by Decree No. 2026/16, published in the Government Gazette of the Maldives on 1 October 2026. The decree appears in Gazette No. 158 of Volume 55, dated 20 Rabi’ al-Akhir 1448, under the official heading “Establishment of National Exchange Limited” (ނޭޝަނަލް އެކްސްޗޭންޖް ލިމިޓެޑް އުފެއްދެވުން). The text is published in Dhivehi, the official language of the state.

The gazette is the official publication of the Maldivian state, issued by the President’s Office in Malé, and it is the channel through which presidential decrees, regulations and official notices take public effect. Decree No. 2026/16 is the sixteenth presidential decree of 2026 to be gazetted; the immediately preceding instrument in the same series, Decree No. 2026/15, was published on 19 September 2026.

A new state company

The decree creates a limited company under the name National Exchange Limited, the entity named in the instrument as the national exchange. The establishment is carried out by decree of the President’s Office rather than by a bill passed by the People’s Majlis, and it takes its place in the 2026 decree series alongside the other presidential instruments gazetted this year.

The instrument is published as a single official document in the gazette, with the decree number printed at the head of the page above the title. Its publication date, 1 October 2026, is the date on which the establishment enters the public record of the Maldivian state.

Publication and official record

• Gazette: Government Gazette of the Maldives
• Issue: No. 158, Volume 55
• Date of publication: 1 October 2026 (20 Rabi’ al-Akhir 1448)
• Instrument: Decree No. 2026/16
• Issuing body: President’s Office, Malé, Maldives
• Heading: Establishment of National Exchange Limited
• Language of publication: Dhivehi

What the decree sets in motion

By naming a single company as the national exchange, the decree gives the capital-markets sector a defined institutional counterpart in the official record. The gazette publication is the operative step: it is what makes the establishment public, citable and enforceable as an act of the President’s Office.

The decree follows the pattern of the 2026 presidential series, in which each instrument is numbered sequentially and published in full in the gazette. Decree No. 2026/16 therefore stands as the latest entry in that series and as the reference point for any subsequent regulation, licence or listing rule that will attach to the new company.

For readers, the practical consequence is that the national exchange now exists as a named legal entity published by the state, and all future acts concerning it will be traceable to Decree No. 2026/16 in Gazette No. 158. Investors, listed companies and the wider capital-markets sector should treat the gazette text as the authoritative source for the company’s name, its establishing instrument and its date of publication.

Source: Gazette of the Government of Maldives, No. 158, 1 October 2026, section I (official reference: Decree No. 2026/16).