Treasury retires payments to its second M-Akiba bond investors

The National Treasury has rounded off payments to the second investors in the mobile traded infrastructure bond dubbed M-Akiba.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC) which represent the Treasury’s issuing and paying agent confirmed the final pay out including Ksh.44.6 million in interest and Ksh.891.4 million in principal amounts.

The investors have previously received Ksh.222.8 million in interest payments made in five tranches since the bond’s issuance in June 2017.

To date, a total of Ksh.312.4 million has been paid out as interest to M-Akiba investors across five issues which raised in excess of Ksh.1 billion in proceeds to the National Treasury domestic borrowing program.

The National Treasury has been betting on the mobile bond debt issue to democratize the participation of the investing public in government securities.

M-Akiba requires a minimum Ksh.3000 investment and pays out a tax-free 10 per cent annual return in comparison to a bare minimum Ksh.50,000 in regular bonds

Insufficient investor knowledge however remains a bug to greater participation in the mobile-traded bond with the majority of Kenyans favouring traditional investment classes such as real estate.

The National Treasury first premiered the mobile bond through a pilot in March of 2017 raising a then record of Ksh.150 million.

The government has been backing the bond to raise a total of Ksh.5 billion from its current pool of 582,572 M-Akiba registrations.