Buying Safaricom shares is one form of investing, the process of using money to potentially generate profitable returns. Hopefully, more and more money;
But we know all investments carry a varying degree of risk, even buying Safaricom shares, as share prices can fluctuate, and the value of your investments can fall or rise subject to factors like market volatility, supply and demand forces to reflect overall corporate performance and ultimately payments of dividends, inflation and policy changes among others, meaning you could get back less than you invest.
It is not until you are familiar and comfortable with the risks involved in investing in shares in the stock market that you are ready for the next step here, which is to learn how you can easily buy Safaricom stocks in Kenya;
How to buy Safaricom PLC shares online
Shares and stocks mean almost the same thing - they are financial instruments used by public companies to raise capital - but largely, stocks represent the holder's part ownership, in this case, Safaricom. Shares are the small units you will get when you buy them.
Only shares in publicly traded companies, also called public limited companies, are available for purchase and sale, and Safaricom is one of them, having the 'PLC' tag at the end of their names - Safaricom PLC.
Safaricom is the largest, the best and leading communications company in Kenya. Its stock is listed and traded on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) under the ticker SCOM in its Main Investment Segment.
When you buy SCOM shares, you own a slice of Safaricom PLC as a shareholder, and you stand to receive dividends at the end of each financial year, depending on the shares you have under your name.
In the last three years, Safaricom has been paying shareholders dividends worth between Ksh48 billion and 55 billion on average. In the previous year, 2023, each received a dividend per share of Ksh1.20/share.
Safaricom's lucrative dividend yield reflects its long-standing policy of returning value to shareholders, and you might be considering investing in its shares:
How do I buy shares in Safaricom?
Step 1: Open a CDS account
CDS stands for the Central Depository System, a fully-fledged automated financial market infrastructure that holds and enables the transfer of fungible securities, such as shares, stocks, and equities, allowing investors to trade them in a centralized manner.
In Kenya, CDS - the Central Depository System is operated by the Central Depository & Settlement Corporation (CDSC), on approval by the Capital Markets Authority, to register accounts for new investors and banks wanting to trade in securities listed in the Equities Market of NSE PLC.
So, to start buying Safaricom shares, you must have a CDS account. To register one as an individual, you need;
* 2 clear passport-size photographs
* A copy of your original ID or a valid passport
* Certificate of incorporation for companies
* Certificate of registration for organizations
Start by downloading the CDS account registration form CDS 1, and then carefully fill in the required details and attach all the needed documents. When done, sign the registration form before your Central Depository Agent (CDA), which is any bank or a stockbroker authorized by CDSC to open securities accounts.
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Most banks in Kenya are CDSC-certified and can help you register a CDS account, and some of those banks are KCB, Equity Bank, Absa and Co-operative Bank of Kenya Limited.
When done with registration, your CDS account will be ready in less than 24 hours, and you can now proceed to the next step of buying Safaricom shares online;
Step 2: Download the Dosikaa app
Dosikaa is an online trading app by the manager Central Depository System CDSC designed to make the Kenyan capital markets accessible to everyone through smartphones so that anyone can buy shares easily and conveniently using their mobile phones.
"Dosikaa allows you to trade securities listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange and keep track of your investment with world-class portfolio tracking tools. Get instant access to comprehensive market data, historical data, and company financials spanning over 16 years," Kenyan stock market regulator Capital Markets Authority says.
The mobile application is available on major app marketplaces like Google Play and App Store for iPhone users.
After downloading the Dosikaa app, sign in using the email and phone number used during registration of your CDS account, and your CDSC account will be linked immediately.
You are ready for the final step:
Step 3: Buying Safaricom shares
Upon accessing your CDSC account via the Dosikaa app, you will see the stockbroker or the bank that helped you with the CDS account opening, and you can make real-time order placement to purchase Safaricom shares online on the app.
To facilitate successful Safaricom and other share purchases online, an investor first deposits funds through the stockbrokers since the Dosikaa application only serves as an intermediary between the investor and the broker to aid in stock trading, only buying and selling.
One of the good things is when you want to buy Safaricom shares and your stockbroker is not listed on Dosikaa, you can create new CDS accounts with different brokers within the app and purchase the shares because one is supposed to have only one CDSC account.
What is the minimum amount to invest in Safaricom shares?
You don't have to have a lot of money to start buying Safaricom shares because the initial process of opening a CDS-CDSC account with the help of approved CDA agents is free up to when you want to purchase the shares.
In the last annual general meeting of Safaricom PLC and its shareholders, the two groups emphasized that the minimum amount of shares to be bought by first-time investors is 100 units, which may cost roughly between Ksh1,500 and Ksh2,000 now that in NSE, it averages approximately Ksh17 per share.
Can you buy Safaricom shares via Mpesa?
Note that you cannot just start buying Safaricom shares from nowhere and ignore misleading articles providing the wrong information.
Before you send money to strange Mpesa pay bill numbers to regretfully buy Safaricom shares, know that if you intend to trade in shares listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, you must have an account with the central depository system CDSC for a faster, easier, and safer way of trading at the bourse and as a rule for Mpesa only provides a means of depositing and withdrawing funds from your CDS accounts and receiving dividends later on after holding and growing your investment portfolio.
