It’s about time M-Akiba goes beyond Nairobi, the Laikipia Deputy Governor John Mwaniki thinks.
With the retail bond now hitting over 505,000 investors, the Laikipia deputy head told the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) that the retail bond needs to expand to other counties within the nation.
“There are many Kenyans who are into betting, and I’m glad the NSE is showing them another way of doing things. However, this thing is in Nairobi,” he said.
The Laikipia Deputy Governor, who used to head the bond market, urged the NSE to take the mobile phone accessible retail bond to other counties and to have discussions there.
Calling on the NSE to reach people on the ground in various counties, Hon. Mwaniki said that influencers such as MCAs need to be equipped with knowledge as many Kenyans still do not understand what M-Akiba is.
“We need more counties. Out there, the conversation is very difficult because people do not understand,” he went on to say.
The former Bond market head also said that sometimes in Kenya, there is a tendency to spend too much time planning instead of executing ideas, as well as a lot of expenditure.
“We must change the narrative from spending to saving,” he said.
The Chair of the Deputy Governors in Kenya was speaking during the ringing of the bell to commemorate the secondary listing of M-Akiba bond onto the bourse.
His sentiments came even as NSE chief executive Geoffrey Odundo mentioned that the exchange is not limited to Nairobi county.
[Read: Cytonn CEO explains risk of off plan real estate investments]
“It’s desirous that M-Akiba is no longer a Nairobi product, but a product for the nation.” said Odundo. “… the capital markets is not a capital markets for Nairobi, it is for Kenya and we want to see a lot of counties using capital financing.”
The NSE also said it had launched the fourth offering of the M-Akiba bond at the People’s Park in Machakos County.
CDSC also indicated that from its statistics, an investor had been identified from Turkana county.
The retail bond commemorated its secondary listing on the NSE on June 11, meaning now investors can buy and sell on M-Akiba bonds on the bourse.
Falling short of its Ksh250 million target, the fourth issue of the M-Akiba bond attracted a total of Ksh187.5 million.
Overall, M-Akiba has raised Ksh782 million.
[See Also: Mostafa Terrab becomes first African to head global fertilizer lobby]
