Report: Kenya’s rich poor in investment

Lack of information by Kenya’s emerging rich has limited their capacity to growth their wealth, a new report says.

According to the Standard Chartered Bank’s Emerging Affluent Study 2018, the country’s emerging affluent rely on basic approaches to achieve their top financial goals.

The study found that 50 per cent of this group still relies on savings accounts as their preferred method for growing wealth. 

“This could explain why nearly half of Kenya’s emerging affluent feel far away from achieving their top financial goal. Although they are eager to invest, the emerging affluent are being held back by a lack of in-depth financial knowledge and may not be aware of all the solutions available to them,” said the report released yesterday.

The study at the same time found that only 20 per cent invest in equities while 16 per cent used fixed income investments.

Investment in mutual funds, the report said, was the least considered at 13 per cent.

This year’s report dubbed Climbing the Prosperity Ladder examined the views of 11,000 emerging affluent consumers from Kenya and 10 markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.