Invest in Kenya: Mansa-X by SIB, An Alternative Investment Solution for Kenyans

Nahashon Mungai, Executive Director for Global Markets at Standard Investment Bank (SIB), shares his vision for global multi asset strategy fund Mansa-X and alternative investment solutions in Kenya for the next two to three years.

“It is not a guaranteed fund and we do not guarantee returns, but we really watch the downside. Our entire model is predicated on the fact that if you watch the downside, then the upside will take care of itself. Almost everything we do on a daily basis is designed to protect the downside. At any one time, if you invest in Mansa-X, you invest in a risk management fund as well. I insist, even to our traders here, that we always have to safeguard the downside. I am confident that our investors are safe from that perspective. In the next two to three years, my dream for the fund is bigger than even the fund itself. The dream I have is for Nairobi to become a financial services hub. If you look at Kenyans, a typical Kenyan will use Uber to come to their office. When he gets to the office, he uses M-Pesa to pay. He works the whole day. He might use a food app to order food. When he goes home, he will watch Netflix. He is using internet-based solutions throughout the entire day to do basic things. Kenyans are a very digital lot. Our investment solutions have not kept up with that. After doing all these things, on the weekend, when he meets with his investment friends, the investment solution will be to buy land 20 km outside of Nairobi. There is a misconnect there. You are very switched on in every aspect of your life. But when it comes to investments, you have so few options that you invest in average return investments that are not liquid. If anything happens to him, he cannot sell that property 20 km from the city. As an investment bank, we need to give Kenyans alternative investment solutions and these solutions need to be more easily accessible and reflective of the challenges that Kenyans actually deal with. We need to get into investments that give better returns, protect them from downside risks, and provide better liquidity so that Kenyans can be able to access their money. In the next two to three years, Mansa-X will be able to prove that to Kenyans and will be able to create a whole new way of investing in Kenya. Kenyans will wake up to the fact that alternative investments are the way to go and will come in droves to invest in Mansa-X. One of our other dreams is to inspire other fund managers to copy us and do the same thing. The more funds that are doing this, the more it will be validated as an investment option and the more Kenyans will benefit”, says Nahashon Mungai.

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