Kenya Opens Its Capital Markets to a New Wave of Funds

KENYA · MARKETS

Key Facts

—The wave: Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority licensed or approved 13 firms and schemes plus 26 unit trust sub-funds in its latest round, one of its broadest expansions in years.

—New managers: ADAR Asset Management, Entrust Advisory and Everstrong Asset Management join as fund managers spanning infrastructure, private equity, real estate and energy.

—New schemes: Two umbrella unit trusts — Cinemark with seven sub-funds and Karsis with twelve — cover money market, fixed income, private debt and multi-asset strategies in shillings, dollars, euros and sterling.

—Fintech first: Frictionless Enterprises, trading as Power, was licensed to connect payroll systems to regulated money market funds — investing straight from the payslip.

—Niche licences: Istithmaar Lulu Maknoon becomes a Shariah-compliant REIT manager, and Saffron Coffee Marketers a licensed coffee broker.

Kenya capital markets are widening fast: the regulator has licensed or approved 13 firms and schemes and 26 unit trust sub-funds, adding payroll-based investing, a Shariah-compliant property manager and funds in four currencies to what ordinary savers can buy.

What changed in Kenya capital markets

The Capital Markets Authority, the industry’s regulator, cleared a batch of licences spanning fund management, advisory, REIT management, coffee brokerage and digital distribution. Coverage of the round emerged this week as the approvals reached the market.

The approvals land as Kenyan savers shift steadily from bank deposits into collective investment schemes. That migration is exactly what the new shelf of products is built to capture.

Three new fund managers — ADAR Asset Management, Entrust Advisory and Everstrong Asset Management — add capacity in closed-end collective schemes, wealth management, infrastructure, private equity, real estate and energy. Established managers, including Absa Asset Management, Dry Associates, Madison and Tradiam, won approval for additional sub-funds.

An investment-adviser licence for Finaltus rounds out the batch. Taken together, the round touches nearly every corner of the industry, from managing money to advising on it, distributing it and trading the commodities behind it.

Investing from the payslip

The most consequential licence may be the least glamorous. Frictionless Enterprises, trading as Power, connects employer payroll systems to fund managers through software interfaces, letting employees put money into regulated money market funds directly from their salaries.

The firm graduates from the regulator’s innovation sandbox into a formal licensing framework. That is a template other African regulators watch closely as they try to move digital investing from experiment to infrastructure.

Kenya has form here. The country that taught the world mobile money with M-Pesa is now pointing the same digital plumbing at savings and investment rather than payments alone.

The distribution question has always been the industry’s bottleneck. A saver who can move salary into a regulated fund in a few taps is a saver the formal market finally reaches.

Islamic finance and coffee join the shelf

Istithmaar Lulu Maknoon was licensed as a Shariah-compliant REIT manager, authorised to raise and deploy capital into property ventures structured to Islamic finance principles. The licence opens regulated real estate investment to savers whose faith bars conventional interest-bearing products.

At the other end of the economy, Saffron Coffee Marketers was cleared as a coffee broker. Kenya trades its prized arabica through a regulated exchange, and brokerage licences knit the crop into the same capital-markets framework as funds and shares.

Islamic finance has long been underserved by Kenya’s mainstream industry despite a substantial Muslim population. Regulated, faith-compliant vehicles pull that capital out of informal channels and into the formal market.

Four currencies, new risks

The two new umbrella schemes, Cinemark and Karsis, offer sub-funds across money market, fixed income, multi-asset and private-debt strategies, denominated in Kenya shillings, US dollars, euros and sterling. For savers long confined to shilling deposits, that is a meaningful widening of choice.

It also imports new risks. As the Kenyan Wallstreet’s analysis notes, private debt and multi-currency funds are not substitutes for ordinary money market funds — they carry different liquidity, valuation, currency and credit risks, and will demand stronger disclosure and investor education, per the outlet’s report on the licensing round.

Why it matters

East Africa’s financial hub is rebuilding momentum: the Nairobi bourse ended a years-long listings drought in 2026, and the regulator is now widening who can manage money and how citizens can invest it. Deeper, more varied domestic capital markets are what let African economies fund themselves.

Nairobi’s stated ambition is to compete as the region’s international financial centre. Regulatory breadth — Islamic products, multi-currency funds, digital rails — is precisely the furniture that ambition requires.

Dollar and euro sub-funds matter especially for Nairobi’s large expatriate and diaspora communities, who often earn in one currency and save in another. Multi-currency wrappers spare them the improvised workarounds of the past.

For foreign investors and expats in Nairobi, the practical upshot is a broader, better-regulated menu — from dollar money market funds to Islamic property vehicles. The licensing wave is quiet news that compounds.

Frequently asked questions

What did Kenya’s CMA just approve?

The Capital Markets Authority licensed or approved 13 firms and schemes plus 26 unit trust sub-funds, spanning fund managers, two umbrella unit trusts, an investment adviser, a Shariah-compliant REIT manager, a coffee broker and a payroll-investing platform.

What is Power and why does its licence matter?

Power, the trading name of Frictionless Enterprises, links employer payroll systems to regulated money market funds so employees can invest directly from salaries. Its move from regulatory sandbox to full licence formalises digital fund distribution in Kenya.

What does the Shariah-compliant REIT licence allow?

Istithmaar Lulu Maknoon may raise and deploy capital into real estate ventures structured to Islamic finance principles. It serves savers who avoid conventional interest-bearing products.

What risks come with the new multi-currency funds?

Private debt and multi-currency sub-funds carry different liquidity, valuation, currency and credit risks from ordinary money market funds. Analysts say their growth will require stronger disclosure and investor education.

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