The National Treasury is facing an uphill task to raise ShSh888 million in less than 24 hours in the mobile-based M-Akiba bond that has only managed to get Sh112.5 million in 21 days.
A source who spoke to The Standard said the Government was mulling extending the offer should the uptake fail to hit the target by close of business today.
However, according to the head of information technology at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), Irungu Wagemma, uptake of the bond is expected to rise today as more investors engage in the last-minute rush.
“In the past two days, we have seen the number and amount of buys increase,” said Mr Wagemma.
He said with the bond having been launched on June 30 after many employees had already been paid, not many people had money left to invest.
The Sh1 billion mobile-traded bond, hailed as the first in the world and one that was expected to rally investors with as little as Sh3,000 to lend to the Government, also encountered technological hitches and low publicity.
By 5.20pm yesterday, updates on the bond from the National Treasury showed that Sh112.5 million or 11 per cent of the total bond had been taken up, making an average of Sh5.4 million buys per day.
This is less than half the average uptake of Sh11.5 million during the Sh150 million limited offer floated in March.
For the bond to be a success, and not factoring in the Sh3.85 billion that Treasury had offered to take up, the public would have to buy at least Sh30 million per hour.
Publicity on the bond has been low. Initially, President Uhuru Kenyatta was set to launch the bond, whose initial period of sale was to be from June 26. This was delayed by four days, but the President did not show up.
“If it was a presidential launch, it would have had enough publicity. But because of elections, it was wise not to include the President so that it would not confused for a campaign strategy,” said Mr Wagemma.
The Government adverts in the media rallying Kenyans to buy the bond have not mentioned Pesalink as one of the avenues of buying the bond apart from Airtel money and M-Pesa. Pesalink, a platform that was to allow investors buy up to Sh999,999 in a day as opposed to telecos’ limit of Sh140,000, ran into hitches with just three banks able to transact the bond.
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