Investors who bought the debut phone-based bond worth Sh150 million will from Tuesday start trading the government security at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
Treasury secretary Henry Rotich will preside at the launch of the M-Akiba trading, offering a chance to those who did not get a piece of the mini-security a chance to buy from the 5,692 investors who bought the government paper.
Buying and selling of the three-year bond at the bourse will be done exclusively via handsets, removing the need for a bank account.
“What will be done tomorrow (Tuesday) is the beginning of trading like shares are done on the ringing of the bell,” said Sterlin Capital Investment director John Kirimi.
The initial sale of the phone based bond sale closed last Wednesday having met the target ahead of set time, which was Wednesday.
Investors can buy the bond for as little as Sh3,000, earning a tax-free interest of 10 per cent.
Data from the National Treasury showed that 102,632 people registered on M-Akiba mobile phone bond platform but only 5.5 per cent actually invested in the inaugural digital paper.
Individual investors bought the bond in different chunks ranging from Sh3,000 to Sh1.13 million, the Treasury said signaling that the sale was mainly dominated by big buyers and not retailers it was meant to serve.
“This leaves the average investment in M-Akiba at Sh26,359,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Safaricom #ticker:SCOM M-Pesa platform handled Sh142 million of the total amount while Airtel money sold Sh8 million, underlining Safaricom’s dominance of the mobile money business.
The Sh150 million raised is the first tranche of the bond whose second portion worth Sh4.85 billion goes on sale in June.
The Treasury is banking on M-Akiba to expand its revenue sources from the traditional pool of banks and high net-worth individuals as it prepares to fill its Sh500 billion budget deficit and retire old debts in the next financial year.
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