Some investors are yet to collect bond payments from the government’s mobile M-Akiba bond due to a lack of clarity of beneficiary details.
The Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC), which handled the bond sale, said some investors had changed their numbers while others who travelled abroad had their numbers deactivated and issued to new users.
It takes about six months for mobile operators to deactivate a number and about a year for it to be issued to a new subscriber.
CDSC chief executive Nkoregamba Mwebesa declined to give the value of outstanding payments but said they were working with mobile operators to find a way to wire the money to the rightful owners.
“We have the records, we have their names, but we can’t match with their numbers to send the money…but we are working with the mobile operators to resolve this,” Mr Mwebesa said yesterday.
The government raised Sh1.04 billion from five M-Akiba issues from 2017, which attracted a total of 582,572 registrations in bids that had been set at a minimum of Sh3,000 to attract retail buyers.
Normal bind sales through the Central Bank of Kenya are sold in a minimum of Sh50,000, rising to Sh100,000 for infrastructure bonds.
The Treasury announced the closure of the last bond last September, saying it had paid a total of Sh312.4 million in interest since 2017.
The retail bond paid a coupon rate of 10 percent, with buyers enjoying a tax-free status in line with other infrastructure bonds.
It was supposed to help Kenyans save more and earn a decent return. Kenyans barely put anything aside for a rainy day, with the national savings rate at 6.1 percent of the gross domestic product in 2018, down from 6.5 percent in 2017 and 11.7 percent in December 2007.
The CDSC said the objectives of the M-Akiba Retail Infrastructure Bond were achieved as the National Treasury was able to leverage increased mobile phone penetration across the country to democratise access to formal financial systems for savings and investments among Kenyans.
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