Kenya Announces First-Ever Government Bond to be Offered Exclusively via Mobile Phone

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 28 – The Treasury has announced the first-ever Government Bond that will be offered exclusively via mobile phone, pointing to the growing relevance of mobile money solutions in the evolving payments space. The bond will be open from October 16.

The solution, known as M-Akiba, will be delivered in partnership with Safaricom’s M-PESA to continue a push that seeks to deepen access for retail bond trading, which was previously only accessible to commercial banks or traders.

The Treasury has lowered the cost of government bonds from Sh50,000 to Sh3,000 and through this mobile-phone based M-Akiba solution; trades can reach an upper limit of Sh140,000 per day until the bond offering period closes.

“In three weeks over 23 million Kenyans will have the potential to participate in a Sh5 billion Government Infrastructure Bond. This historical development is testament of our commitment to embrace innovation to democratize the uptake of government securities,” National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said.

 

Source: Capital FM (link opens in a new window)

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financial inclusion, mobile finance