The National Social Security Fund (NSSF), has come out to clarify an erroneous story published on the Business Daily purporting that the Fund had sold 837 million KCB shares “in a rare move.”
The story claimed that NSSF disposed 21.63 million shares in a three-month period hence cutting its ownership of KCB to 8.9 percent from 9.07 percent.
“The story is factually wrong,” said NSSF in a statement. According to the Fund, KCB shareholding by NSSF as at December 31, 2022 was 9.61 percent and not 8.39 percent as claimed in the story. “In fact, NSSF net position on KCB during the fourth quarter of 2022 was buy, not sell.”
NSSF has also called out the story claiming that the Fund sold 837 million shares. “There is no such a thing. NSSF did not sell the said amount of shares. The story is an alarmist and a clickbait with no factual information,” said NSSF.
At the same time, NSSF has reiterated its commitment to securing and safeguarding the contributions of the members which includes sustaining their investments in entities such as KCB for more income and sustainability.
Given the nature of the stock markets, not just in Kenya but around the world, such stories touching on listed firms, to make it worse a bank, are likely to shift the markets, and sometimes leading to panic among investors, most of which might flee.
The erroneous story comes a few days after Kenya joined the world in marking the Safer Internet Day where issues of fake news and their effects to both the economy and the society were widely discussed. It also comes at a time the Media Council of Kenya is reforming its policies to weed out fake journalists and impositors within the media sector.
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