Kenya's Safaricom starts offering stock trading on its M-Pesa platform

NAIROBI, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Kenyan telecoms relation Safaricom connected Tuesday launched banal trading for investors connected its M-Pesa mobile telephone fiscal ​platform, a determination that could bring millions of caller tiny ‌investors into the bourse.

M-Pesa was 1 of the planetary pioneers of mobile-phone-based wealth transportation work ‌in 2007. Its idiosyncratic basal has grown to 35 cardinal customers successful Kenya and it present offers an array of fiscal services including savings, banking and concern products.

The caller stock-trading product, called Ziidi Trader, volition let M-Pesa users ⁠to straight bargain shares connected ‌the Nairobi Securities Exchange, without the request to unfastened a brokerage account, Safaricom said.

The company, successful which South Africa's ‍Vodacom holds a 40% involvement which it is successful the process of increasing, did not accidental however galore customers it expects to usage Ziidi Trader, oregon whether ​it volition beryllium expanded into different M-Pesa markets similar Ethiopia.

Safaricom volition ‌work with Nairobi-based brokerage Kestrel Capital connected the implementation of Ziidi, it said.

Ziidi Trader accounted for an mean of 40% of trades astatine the bourse since it went unrecorded connected Monday, Safaricom said, representing 5% of full regular commercialized volume.

The NSE, which is 1 of Africa's apical bourses by ⁠market capitalisation, says it is targeting 9 ​million progressive retail investors by the extremity ​of 2029. It did not disclose its existent fig of retail investors.

Ziidi Trader's motorboat comes successful the aftermath of a beardown ‍rally astatine the ⁠NSE, which has benefited from increasing allocations to emerging-market stocks since past year.

The inaugural besides fits successful to the strategy of Kenyan ⁠President William Ruto, who faces re-election successful August adjacent year, of enabling much Kenyans to ‌participate successful superior markets.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri successful Nairobi; Editing ‌by Karin Strohecker and Matthew Lewis)