AIB Capital launches online stock trading platform

Investors can now open CDS accounts, buy and sell shares all by themselves online following the launch of a new technology meant to remove stock purchase bureaucracies.

AIB Capital Limited launched the DigiTrader on Thursday aiming to remove hurdles associated with conventional stock buying through brokers and prompt more Kenyans to invest in stocks. It joins a growing list of brokers with online trading platform locally.

The stockbrokerage firm that came up with the solution said the intervention hopes to attract the youth “who are familiar with convenience and speed” into investing in the Kenyan capital markets as well as target far-flung target markets such as traders in remote areas in Kenya and traders in the diaspora.

The innovation comes as the industry regulator, Capital Markets Authority plans to launch a Regulatory Sandbox Policy Guidance Note that will mark the beginning of receiving and considering various innovations in stock trading.

“AIB's innovation goes to the core of the Capital Market Authority's (CMA) aspirations to stimulate Gross National Savings as a ratio of GDP from the current estimated 12 to 30 percent by the year 2030,” the CMA said in a statement after the launch.

To open an account at the NSE, investors were required to go through an inconvenient and cumbersome process through a broker. The innovation that comes out of a partnership between AIB, the Integrated Population Integration Services (IPRS) and The Central Depository & Settlement Corporation Limited (CDSC) among other stakeholders makes every single step of trading self-service.

The new solution now removes the need for a client to present physical documentation to a stock-brokerage office for know your customer (KYC) verification. Users can access the solution through a USSD (dial *543# using a Safaricom line to open their accounts) or through a mobile application.