The Kenyan Government will finally launch the M-Akiba Mobile retail bond on Thursday 23rd March – nearly two years after postponing the project several times.
Sale of the tax free mobile infrastructure bond will be opened from Thursday 23rd March to 10th April 2017 with an initial target of Sh 150 Million at a fixed coupon rate of 10%. Interest of the three year bond will be paid twice a year until April 2020.
Only two mobile operators, Safaricom and Airtel have been chosen to act as placing agents and they will be paid commission at the rate of 0.1% of actual sales (at cost) net 5% withholding tax.
The announcement is particularly important for Kenyan investors given that in the past years, the Government has been issuing Treasury Bonds and Infrastructure bonds with a minimum investment amount Kshs.50,000.00; making difficult for most Kenyans to afford the bonds. The M-Akiba special bond, the first of its kind in the world and requires a minimum investment of Kshs.3,000. This is affordable to most Kenyans compared to the initial ones that had a minimum investment of Kshs.50,000.
“A total cost of 0.035% of your total investment shall be payable as commission to the capital markets participants namely the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Capital markets Authority, Central Depository and Settlement Corporation and the Investor Compensation Fund……other transaction costs to be inserted once agreed upon.”
Investors can participate by dialling *889# and follow the instructions to complete an order.
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