The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) is a market place where buyers and sellers of financial instruments meet. The Exchange is the secondary leg of Capital Markets that help avail long term and affordable capital to companies (productive users) from investors (idle holders/savers) with investment motives.

The Stock Exchange is therefore part of the process through which companies looking for capital; issue financial instruments to investors from the general public so as to raise capital and finance their businesses. The two main financial instruments issued by companies to raise capital are Equity (Shares) and Debt (Corporate Bonds)