Monday, March 10, 2008

NSE fallout from Nyaga?

Nyaga processed Ksh8.2bn of all transactions at the NSE last year. Yes, Ksh8.2bn and it still went bankrupt. Nyaga had 25% of all accounts held at the NSE. Nyaga uniquely probably had the widest network of branches of all the brokers. But Nyaga was probably bankrupt right around the fiasco of Mumias second OFS in 2006 when I started hearing noises about bouncing checks. If we don't have a bearish market over the next few weeks, it'll only be because a lot of investors used the last year to move away from Nyaga. Nyaga is said to have owed Ksh800m against something like Ksh200m in assets i.e. a buyer would have to buy Nyaga for Ksh600m to make sure everybody got there dues. Nyaga of course means ostrich so this one must have had its head in the sand for a considerable period.
Identifying what needs to be done is the easy part,

  1. Financial services regulator with a remit to look at all deposit-takers
  2. CDSC must been given the power to police trades and become a different audit trail
  3. Stockbrokers must file daily returns that reconcilable to what is held by CDSC
  4. NSE must de-mutualise

Doing it isn't easy because it should have been done last yr,
but because FT found a buyer, the unpalatable steps were not taken. It’s a bit like our political scene.
Talking of which, don't some peeps like Muthuara and Martha realize the kind hole Kenya was in last month? Muthaura needs to go to his farm and enjoy retirement while Martha can become our first female Rais
but needs to pick up the populist lessons from the golfing Raila.

2 comments:

The Black Mamba said...

This are the very reasons that I give Kenya a wide berth when it comes to issues concerning my hard earned money.

MainaT said...

Be part of the solution, don't run away Ssem. Joking. I understand your concerns...