The second sale of the mobile-based bond M-Akiba is set to flop. The second issuance of the revolutionary sale has only managed to net Sh. 112.5 million in 21 days.

This means that it has failed to meet its target by Sh. 888 million.

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.

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.