M-Akiba Hits 50 Percent Subscription Rate on Week One

Just less than a week after rolling out the much-awaited M-Akiba Bond, one that allows Kenyans to invest as little as 3000 shillings at the interest of 10 percent per annum with tax exemption, the subscription has hit 50 percent rate.

By the close of business on Wednesday, bonds worth 75.2 million shillings had been sold out through M-pesa and Airtel Money giving the National Treasury hope that all the bonds might be sold out ahead of the stipulated time.

Already, more than 60,000 Kenyans have registered to invest and trade in the bond and the Treasury is optimistic that the number might increase at the end of the week.

The Treasury had issued bonds worth 150 million shillings to taste the waters to see if Kenyans were interested. The offer will be closed on the 10^th of April but the Treasury plans to roll out another bond with more than a billion shillings by the month of June upon assessing the performance of the ongoing bond.

The Treasury issued out M-Akiba in an effort to raise funds that would see it minimize on both foreign and local borrowing. With M-Akiba, Kenyans can invest as little as 3000 thousand shillings with a maximum of 140,000 shillings per day. The Treasury is in talks with mobile operators to raise the limit of daily transaction from 140,000 shillings to a much higher figure.