National Treasury on February 25 re-opened the M-Akiba Retail Infrastructure Bond which seeks to raise a total amount of Kh250 million against the one billion target.
M- Akiba is the first-ever Government Bond to be offered exclusively via mobile phone, pointing to the growing relevance of mobile money solutions in the evolving payments space.
Jointly with the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC) in Partnership with the Nairobi Security Exchange (NSE), the bid offer will be open for 10 days to March 8.
The bond, whose tenure will be one and a half years with a redemption date of September 7, 2020, will be on the NSE for secondary trading on March 12.
Confirming this during the re-launch of M-Akiba Bond, CDSC Chief Executive Rose Mambo said that during the offer period, CDSC would facilitate the creation of Central Depository System (CDS) accounts which is processing of applications in the primary market and registry services as a sub-register to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
Mambo added that the bond has attracted over 300, 000 new investors onto the bond platform underscoring the bond’s potential to revolutionise access to capital market products since its inception in 2017.
She noted that M-Akiba retail bond seeks to deepen and enhance financial inclusion through leveraging on increased mobile phone penetration to democratize access to formal financial systems for savings and investments.
Mambo added that more Kenyans were now able to participate in Government bonds by investing a minimum Sh3, 000 which is considerably lower in comparison to the minimum Sh50, 000 required to invest in other Treasury bills and bonds.
Read: Former Pepsi CEO joins Amazon board
“This initiative supports our commitment to grow local retail participation in our bond market in line with our corporate strategy. M-Akiba is a low risk investment product that offers investors a steady source of income and an effective way for saving for the future,” noted NSE Chief Executive Mr. Geoffrey Odundo.
The bond, Odundo said, would offer simplicity, convenience as well as great value to Kenyans across a wide spectrum of the economy.
Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Chief Executive Paul Muthaura stated that the government would be able to access financial resources at competitive rates while enabling the common mwananchi obtain investment opportunities with good returns.
“The M-Akiba initiative is well aligned to the Capital Markets masterplan 2014-2023 which identifies technological innovations as one of the four centers of excellence of the Kenyan capital markets,” Muthaura added.
The re-opening of the bond is set to enable Kenyans both locally and in the diaspora to enjoy a high return of 10 percent interest within duration of one and a half years, tax exemption and has proven to be very competitive against other investment instruments.
See Also: Liquidity – the fluidity of cash assets
2 Comments