Safaricom Set To Launch Unit Trust Investment Plan On M-PESA Platform

Kenya’s giant telecommunication company, Safaricom, is testing a new product that is expected to hit the market soon and take the financial industry by storm once launched.

The new product which is currently being tested will be encompassed on Safaricom’s M-PESA and is targeting to largely grow Kenyans saving culture.

The new saving product expected to be launched soon by Safaricom is a unit trust investment product that will be on its M-Pesa platform as Kenya’s giant telecommunication company races for a larger share of the financial services market.

The new Safaricom unit trust product will enable subscribers to make payments as small as they wish via M-Pesa and those payments will be collected together in a scheme for investments in assets like stocks, fixed bank deposits, and government securities.

Those that will subscribe to the soon to be launched Safaricom saving product will get a return either from dividends or capital growth of their units.

The soon to be launched saving product will see Safaricom grow M-PESA from simply a channel to send and receive money to a saving platform that will compete with major players in the financial saving industry.

Safaricom is currently awaiting a go-ahead from the regulatory authority so as to introduce the new savings product which will be common amongst Kenyans as Mali which is Kiswahili for wealth.

Safaricom’s Mali will offer interest rates of up to 10 percent on deposits capped at 70,000 shillings per saver based on the pilot test carried out in December.

“We are in the final stages of piloting a unit trust investment product enabling customers to create and retain wealth,” Michael Joseph the former Safaricom CEO and a director at the telecommunication company said in an online investor briefing.