Safaricom has launched a new money market fund (MMF) that will be in direct rivalry with the Mali Money Market Fund that it has been running.
According to a report that appeared in a local daily on Thursday, Safaricom launched the new MMF dubbed Ziidi after wrangles over the ownership of the Mali MMF with Genghis Capital.
The new Ziidi Money Market Fund will be a partnership of Safaricom, Standard Investment Bank (SIB), ALA Capital Limited, and Sanlam Investments East Africa Limited.
The daily reported that Safaricom and Genghis had gotten into disagreements over the intention by Safaricom to onboard the three fund managers into the Mali MMF.
The daily went on to state that whereas SIB had registered Mali’s trademark name with the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), Genghis had claimed ownership of the product. Genghis had reportedly argued that it had introduced and sought approvals through the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Sandbox.
The CMA says that the Sandbox is a tailored regulatory environment that allows for the live testing of innovative capital markets related products, solutions and services with the potential to deepen and develop the capital markets prior to launching into the mass market.
“The live testing is conducted under a less onerous regulatory regime and is expected to attract fintech companies and existing capital markets intermediaries seeking to add value through the application of technology to financial services among other innovations,” the CMA states.
Although Mali has the approval of the CMA, it is yet to receive regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
With the entry of Ziidi MMF, Safaricom is expected to target low income earners, with the option of investing via mobile phone from as low as Sh. 100.
Daniel Mutuku: Why I switched from saving money in bank to saving in MMF
This is expected to be a boon for many small scale investors looking to earn returns above the inflation rate from low-risk investments.
As at October 31, 2024, the CMA had approved a total of 54 collective investment schemes. 36 of these had an active status.
