Nahashon Mungai Executive Director, Global Markets at Standard Investment Bank Mansa Musa, the 14th-century West African ruler believed to be one of the richest men who ever lived, has literally inspired a gold rush in Kenya, which is raising eyebrows.
Known as the golden king, Musa is said to have caused gold prices in North Africa to plummet for over a decade after dishing out so much of the precious metal on his pilgrimage to Mecca.
The man, whose empire accounted for about half of the world’s gold at the time, is the inspiration behind Mansa X, a fund started by Standard Investment Bank (SIB) that promises an annual return of 24 per cent.
SIB is Kenya’s only regulated online currency trading manager. Recently, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) came out to reassure investors that the fund is compliant following murmurs about its promise of huge returns.
This is on the back of rising cases of investors losing money. Before 2017, when the regulator introduced online forex trading regulations, the market was largely unregulated. Read More
SIB got a money manager licence in 2018, allowing the firm to trade in online forex for clients in all types of classes, including currencies, commodities and global stocks.
SIB Executive Director and Head of Global Markets Nahashon Mungai said even at 24 per cent, the fund has underperformed, as returns of up to 25 per cent are possible owing to its trading in a wide range of global investment products.
“This is because of the fund’s diverse asset class, skill and a model shaped in a way that we can trade long when the markets go up and also short when assets are losing value,” said Mungai. Mansa X trades in more than 100 currency combinations, commodities such as oil, natural gas and coffee and precious metals, including gold and silver platinum.
Added to this are also global stock indices and lucrative stocks such as Apple, Tesla and AT & T.
It was the first fund manager to snap the Gold ETF at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
“If we never used to hedge out our positions, our returns would be much higher. Compared to other global hedge funds, we’ve actually underperformed,” said Mungai.“You have been sold a sob story for too long. Twenty-four per cent in Kenya shilling terms is not that high. If you look at Kenya’s middle-class, real inflation is more than 20 per cent daily,” he added. […]