NAIROBI, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Kenyan telecoms operator Safaricom on Tuesday launched stock trading for investors on its M-Pesa mobile phone financial platform, a move that could bring millions of new small investors into the bourse.
M-Pesa was one of the global pioneers of mobile-phone-based money transfer service in 2007. Its user base has grown to 35 million customers in Kenya and it now offers an array of financial services including savings, banking and investment products.
The new stock-trading product, called Ziidi Trader, will allow M-Pesa users to directly buy shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, without the need to open a brokerage account, Safaricom said.
The company, in which South Africa’s Vodacom holds a 40% stake which it is in the process of increasing, did not say how many customers it expects to use Ziidi Trader, or whether it will be expanded into other M-Pesa markets like Ethiopia.
Safaricom will work with Nairobi-based brokerage Kestrel Capital on the implementation of Ziidi, it said.
Ziidi Trader accounted for an average of 40% of trades at the bourse since it went live on Monday, Safaricom said, representing 5% of total daily trade volume.
The NSE, which is one of Africa’s top bourses by market capitalisation, says it is targeting 9 million active retail investors by the end of 2029. It did not disclose its current number of retail investors.
Ziidi Trader’s launch comes in the wake of a strong rally at the NSE, which has benefited from growing allocations to emerging-market stocks since last year.
The initiative also fits in to the strategy of Kenyan President William Ruto, who faces re-election in August next year, of enabling more Kenyans to participate in capital markets.
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Editing by Karin Strohecker and Matthew Lewis)
