On Wednesday, SBG Securities launched M-Shares, the country’s first ever mobile platform that allows investors to buy and sell shares directly as well as having access to real-time market information from the Nairobi Securities Exchange, a move set to shift the trading activities at the stock exchange. SBG Securities is a subsidiary of Stanbic Holdings.
The M-shares platform is a self-service one. The interesting part is that the service is accessible on USSD by dialing *209#. This will help in presenting a wide pool of investment opportunities to investors to use a mobile phone. The launching of M-share comes after the group pioneered another online trading platform into the Kenyan market, the iTrader in 2010.
One advantage is that besides trading and marketing as well as accessing market information from the NSE platform, investors on M-Share will also be able to manage their Central Depository Services (CDS) accounts and load the account using any mobile money provider. The platform removes barriers that previously stood in the way of invested interested in trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. By use of mobile phone, investors can have access and trade on the NSE from anywhere.
Key advantages of M-Share
- The platform allows investors to trade directly on the Nairobi Securities Exchange by buying and selling of shares.
- The platform eliminates the element of having to go through brokers before trading at the NSE as it was in the case of iTrader that was launched in 2010.
- The platform is found on a USSD by dialing *209#
- The investor will be in a position to manage their CDS (Central Depository Services)
- The platform can be accessed anywhere anytime.
According to the statistics released by the Communications Authority of Kenya, Kenya’s mobile penetration now stands at 90 percent. By June 2016, mobile subscription in Kenya had hit 39.7 million subscribers. This implies that with M-Share, more people can access directly to trading at the NSE via their mobile phones. What is more is that the element of an investor has to go through brokers in order to trade has been eliminated. This will be different from the iTrader where investors could only trade at the NSE through brokers.
