Plan to trade in bonds via mobile phone
Mobile phone users will easily access bond trading. This will open the trade from the traditional confines of urban elite. Photo/FILE
Kenyans will soon be able to buy bonds using their mobile phones if a donor-funded project is implemented.
The World Bank project, which is in its pilot stage, allows mobile phone users to easily access bond trading, thereby opening up the bond market that has been a preserve for urban market.
“We are very excited about this, and we will monitor how the pilot succeeds,” said Evans Osano, head of the Efficient Securities Markets Institutional Development program at the World Bank.
Diaspora Bond Fund
The financier also announced that they are in the process of initiating a Diaspora Bond Fund, which will allow cash and investment capital to flow from the diaspora communities.
The announcement was made during a two-day conference that was organized by the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank’s ESMID program on ways to strengthen Africa’s bond markets in order to increase long-term funding for economic development.
ESMID is a joint World Bank and IFC program that concentrates on developing bond markets to finance sectors such as agribusiness, housing, infrastructure and microfinance.
Leaders from the private sector, government officials, financial experts and regulators converged at the Intercontinental Hotel to discuss ways to develop well-functioning security markets and to find funding solutions for economic development in Africa.
Bonds have become a lucrative alternative for traders since the stock exchange has been performing on a negative scale due to the depreciating shilling.
