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Investors told to venture offshore
Business Daily Journalist Kepha Muiruri takes guests through a presentation during at the 4th BD Investor Education Conference held at Movenpick Hotel on May 29, 2026.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
Investors have been urged to tap offshore investment opportunities on the back of technology that has opened doors for individuals to diversify away from Kenyan government securities and local stocks.
The Business Daily’s fourth investor conference turned the spotlight on the future of investing, with industry leaders highlighting technology and artificial intelligence as key drivers in the assets diversification push.
Local fund managers have created applications that allow investors to directly buy foreign assets such as shares and commodities, including gold, oil and silver.
The technologies also allow local investors to buy Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), a pooled investment vehicle that holds a basket of securities—such as stocks, bonds or commodities—and trades on a stock exchange just like a regular company stock.
Buying a single ETF allows investors to instantly spread their money across hundreds or thousands of different assets, lowering their risk.
Mobile and web trading platform Hisa’s Chief Operations Officer, Leah Wakarima, said technology has lowered barriers to entry and has widened the investment options for ordinary Kenyans through smartphones.
“Technology has done for investing what M-Pesa did for payments. It has created access to investment,” she said at the conference.
The conference, themed ‘The Future of Investing: Diversifying Portfolio in a New Era,’ brought together investors, policymakers, entrepreneurs and financial market players to discuss emerging investment opportunities amid the shifting global economic and trends.
Ms Wakarima said investment in assets such as ETFs was no longer limited to wealthy individuals, adding that digital tools had enabled younger and first-time investors to tap the global financial markets.
M-Pesa was one of the global pioneers of mobile-phone-based money transfer services in 2007. The mobile money platform’s user base has grown to 35 million customers in Kenya, and it now offers an array of financial services, including savings, banking, investment products and direct trading shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange without the need to open a brokerage account.
Nation Media Group CEO Geoffrey Odundo said the conference had evolved over the last four years from a financial literacy forum into a major platform for conversations around investment, economic transformation and market trends.
Nation Media Group (NMG) Group managing Director and CEO Geoffrey Odundo makes his remarks during 4th BD Investor Education Conference held at Movenpick Hotel on May 29, 2026.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
“Business Daily has continued to provide trusted reporting, analysis and insight that helps readers understand not only what is happening in the economy, but what those developments mean and how they should respond to them,” said Mr Odundo.
Centum Investment CEO James Mworia said the future investment growth would come from financing productive ecosystems tied to the global demand.
Participants at the conference urged Kenyan investors to think global.
He argued that Kenya and Africa stood to benefit from the shifting global supply chains, digitisation and changing geopolitical dynamics, which are pushing manufacturers and investors to seek alternative production and investment destinations.
He also cautioned against policy unpredictability, saying frequent tax changes risk undermining investor confidence and long-term capital allocation.
The rise of digital investing platforms has also transformed how fund managers acquire and interact with clients, according to Arvocap Asset Managers' Head of Business Development, John Kamau.
“Today, a lot more people can participate in the investment space. Thank God for technology and access to information,” said Mr Kamau.
He revealed that nearly all of Arvocap’s clients currently join through their digital onboarding platforms, reflecting the growing shift towards technology-driven investing.
“As a company, 98 percent of our clients have come from self-onboarding, digital onboarding,” he said.
With artificial intelligence increasingly influencing financial markets globally, panelists also debated the opportunities and risks presented by AI-powered investing tools.
“AI is a tool. It is not a pilot, it is a co-pilot,” said Mr Kamau.
