During the 2015/16 Budget Speech, Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury, Henry Rotich said the Government had launched the M-Akiba bond, Kenya’s first mobile-based Treasury bond with a minimum investment level of Kshs. 3,000.
M-Akiba was developed by NSE, Capital Markets Authority, Central Bank of Kenya, the Kenya Association of Stockbrokers and Investment Banks, the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation, the Nairobi International Financial Centre Authority, the ICT Authority and the National Treasury.
M-Akiba bond and the roll out of the Treasury Mobile Direct (TMD) platform will see ordinary Wananchi invest in govt bonds originally a preserve of banking and insurance institutions. M-Akiba is also expected to increase financial inclusion in the country.
In a statement Mr. Geoffrey Odundo, CEO, NSE said, “Throughout the process, we have kept our eyes on the ultimate target: promoting financial inclusion in Kenya. The M-Akiba bond will enable an entirely new group of investors to access Government debt securities via their phones, which will undoubtedly drive up the national savings rate.”
The Treasury Mobile Direct (TMD) will enable just about anyone with a mobile phone to invest in govt, a move the govt says will the numbr of retail investors hence up the govt’s liquidity. Set to be operational next year, the platform will allow the traders to invest a minimum Ksh 3,000 down from Ksh 50,000.
Other than M-Akiba, the govt is also set to move all itsmajor transactions online to cut fraud via its e-citizen portal and the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) which aims to be sole accounting system for the government. The e-citizen portal has so far signed up over 400,000 citizens who have done over 8,000 transactions worth Sh10 million per day.
The govt set aside Ksh 223b to tackle insecurity and Ksh 112.5bn for military security while Ksh 102bn was allocated to internal security. Ksh 25bn was allocated police and military for security mordernization. All Govt departments are now required IFMIS even if its so complicated and uninstalled in some counties.
The govt’s Huduma Centers are to be rolled out into all the 47 counties while e-Citizen online services would be expanded to accept business and land transaction charges, motor vehicle fees and registration of persons. Uwezo fund got Ksh 850m, the Youth Fund got Ksh 300m while money for women fund stood at Ksh 500m.
The Jubilee Laptop project was also moved from the Education Ministry to the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) and aims to see over 1 million kids from over 11,000 primary schools get laptops which the govt aims to spent some Ksh 17.58 billion to have them manufactured locally. Of the total laptop budget, Ksh 9.58 billion will be used on capacity building while Ksh 8 billion on local manufacturing and assembly and some other cash will be spent on creation of digital content.