Individual debt investors returned to the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in large numbers in the quarter to December 2025 after Safaricom and East African Breweries (EABL) tapped the market for funding, underscoring renewed appetite for corporate bonds after a prolonged issuance drought.
The number of individual corporate bond investors at the bourse rose 3.9 times to 2,966 from 759 in September, lifting the share of retail participation in the bond market to 7.2 percent from 5.8 percent, latest data from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) shows.
The surge followed two successful corporate bond issuances during the quarter by Safaricom and EABL, both of which were oversubscribed, coming shortly after a bond issue by Linzi Finco Trust that ended more than a year without a new corporate bond listing.
Safaricom raised Sh20 billion in a medium-term note issued in December and which attracted bids worth Sh41.86 billion, with the vast majority of bidders being retail investors in terms of the number of applications.
The company disclosed that 2,453 individual investors participated in the transaction in which the number of institutional investors was 574.
Within the same month, EABL’s medium-term note raised Sh16.76 billion, surpassing the initial target of Sh11 billion. The brewer did not disclose how much of the demand came from retail investors.
Overall, institutional investors, including insurance companies, pension funds, investment banks and brokers, reduced their participation at the Nairobi bourse, with at least 29 exiting the market in the three months to December.
The share of corporate bond value held by institutional investors declined to 90.7 percent from 92.3 percent in September, reflecting rising interest from retail investors.
The two bond issues also boosted turnover and trading in the corporate bond secondary market. Value traded rose to Sh840 million in 2025 from Sh40 million in 2024.
“Notably, corporate bonds traded [in the secondary market] during the fourth quarter of 2025, recording a turnover of Sh203.49 million, compared with Sh107.85 million in third quarter of 2025,” the CMA said in its quarterly market update.
The two bonds issued in December brought the total number of listed corporate bonds to seven. EABL’s previous bond was issued in 2021, raising Sh11 billion, and was redeemed with the proceeds of the December bond.
Safaricom’s bond was the first tranche of a Sh40 billion medium-term note programme, and the company is expected to return to the market to raise a second tranche.
Beyond corporate bonds, retail investors’ appetite is rising across other asset classes, including government bonds, equities and collective investment schemes.
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