President Uhuru Kenyatta to launch main M-Akiba bond with an offer of Ksh 4.85 billion in June 2017

This was announced by Cabinet Secretary of The National Treasury, Henry Rotich as he presented the 2017/18 budget.

“Kenya is widely known for innovation in financial inclusion. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, last year, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and co-founder of the social networking site, Facebook, visited Kenya to meet with entrepreneurs and developers and learn how our M-Pesa works, and how it has transformed the lives of ordinary Kenyans. Well, Mr. Speaker, Well we have done it,” said Mr. Rotich.

He added that about a week ago he presided over the launch of a special limited offer of the M-Akiba bond worth Ksh 150 million. “This is a retail bond issued by the Government of Kenya and can be bought and sold via the mobile phone platform. The tax-free M-Akiba bond aims at promoting a savings and investment culture by Kenyans with a minimum investment amount of Ksh 3,000 and a maximum investment amount of Ksh 140,000 per day,” he added.

According to Mr. Rotich, the M-Akiba platform will now help Kenyan citizens invest as little as Ksh 3,000, with no risk to their money, and receive higher interest rates than those offered by banks.

He also invited all Kenyans to invest in the bond, whose money will be used for infrastructure projects to further develop the country and move towards achieving the Vision 2030 development goals.

Well before the first week of sales was concluded, Mr. Rotich reported that a total of 68,399 Kenyans had registered with total buys of the bond hitting Ksh79.0 million.

“This is more than half of the figure on offer of Ksh 150 million within just one week of the launch. So for, those who have not registered and are yet to buy, hurry up!! Registering and investing is as simple as dialing *889#,” he said.

The 2017/18 budget was this year presented against a backdrop of the upcoming elections. The President, through the cabinet secretary, took the opportunity to announce to the country the socio-economic successes of the Jubilee Administration before its term comes to an end.

This year’s budget objective was to leverage on its recent successes in order to deliver jobs and prosperity to Kenyans hence the overarching theme of “Creating Jobs, Delivering a Better Life for All Kenyans.”

The proposed expenditure of KES 2.630 trillion is the largest ever and continues the trend of expansionary budgets under the current government designed to spur economic growth