Ex-housekeeper finds perfect niche in e-forex trade training

Retail foreign exchange trading in Kenya is expanding. Almost every young person wants a piece of the lucrative business.

Some have found a business opportunity in providing consultancy services, individual coaching on how to trade and navigate the online forex trading platforms.

“I started this company to help people interested so that they learn the right way of doing it by themselves,” says Godfrey Wasike, founder of a forex trading consultancy Universal FX.

“In online forex trading, it is advisable you do it yourself because it involves money. It has a lot of risks and the market fluctuates every time. If you give someone a chance to do it for you, one could mismanage it. That is why people who had an interest [in the trade] during our time are no longer there. They believe the business is just a scam.”

The online forex market involves trading currencies online through brokers or commodities like gold and silver, expanding avenues from mainstream capital market operations like stocks, bonds and derivatives, gold-backed Exchange Traded Fund.

Forex is more volatile than stock trading.

One can execute an order and close within a minute at a profit as it gives a live movement of the prices.

The growth has been attributed to the youthful population, the Internet and higher mobile penetration.

The growing interest in forex trading has resulted in the need for brokerage offices. However, scams are still rife in the Kenyan forex market despite tight regulation by the Capital Markets Authority.

To help the public avoid scammers, the 30-year-old started the company in 2017 to train beginners when a majority of forex traders were falling victims to fraudsters or unregulated brokers.

“Most people let others trade on their behalf. In this case, they don’t tell you how to do it yourself. They can claim they lost your money or withdraw the cash from your account and but will tell you the market was bad,’’ Mr Wasike says.

“I realised there are a lot of people who are interested in this and end up falling into bad hands.”

Universal FX directs clients to work with different brokerage firms based on their personal decision.

Unlike most brokers, the company does not manage accounts or hold money on behalf of its clients but charges for training.

“We were first charging Sh150,000 but realised that most people interested in forex trading could not raise the amount. Now we charge as low as Sh3,000,” says Mr Simuyu.

“When I started the company, people were excited about forex trading but didn’t know how to go about it. Some were conned in the name of forex trading.”

The company has opened offices in other African countries like Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, Ivory Coast and plans to enter Malawi and Senegal.

Before starting the business, he worked at a confectionery factory in Industrial Area and as a housekeeper in a popular fast food restaurant in Nairobi central business district.

Mr Simuyu says he started trading with Sh10,000 to earn additional income after work and later invested Sh100,000 when he took it up as a full-time job.

“People make money. I also make money. This is a good business. If you learn the right concept, you can make a living from it,” he says.

“Forex trading is just like any other business where you set goals and targets either daily or monthly, but it also depends on your investment. You cannot invest Sh100,000 and expect to get Sh100,000 return on the same day or at the end of the month on the same capital.”

There are no shortcuts, he says.

“If one invests Sh200,000 and makes two or five percent of that, then that is good for a trader. But if you are driven by excitement, it means you may not do it correctly. When you start losing money, emotions drive you in a bid to recover.”