Kenyan money transfer service PesaLink has announced that those investing in the government issued retail bond M-Akiba can now do so using its platform.

Prior to PesaLink's entry, M-Akiba was only accessible via M-Pesa and Airtel Money platforms. The trade of the bond via a dedicated PesaLink short code follows the conclusion of a joint partnership between the Kenya Bankers Association's (KBA) wholly owned FinTech firm, Integrated Payment Services Limited (IPSL), The National Treasury, The Central Deposit & Settlement Corporation (CDSC) and The Nairobi Securities Exchange.

"As part of the ongoing efforts to ease access of M-Akiba, local bank account holders signed up on the PesaLink platform, can now conveniently trade the bond round the clock from the comfort of their mobile devices." revealed PesaLink in a statement.

Bank account holders signed up on the PesaLink service will have access to transaction limits of up to Kshs 999,999 according to the company.

Jenifer Theuri, CEO at IPSL which manages PesaLink, said approvals to run the M-Akiba service had already been received during the launch of M-Akiba in March.

"As IPSL we are proud to be participating in this historical initial offer which also coincides with the launch of the IPSL Alias account number, which are commonly known as Paybill numbers. This will be the first time IPSL will be using 'alias account numbers' mapped to a bank collection account enabled through the NSE's PesaLink Paybill number '889'."

The M-Akiba Bond was introduced into the market on 23 March 2017 to enable Kenyans to to buy bonds through the use of their mobile phones enhancing financial inclusion for economic development.

PesaLink hit the Kshs 2.5 billion (US$25m) transaction mark after four months of operation. Transactions on the platform are cost-free for the next two months to encourage more users to join the platform.

"We have much more planned for the future. We foresee the platform enabling money transfers of multiple currencies, we shall venture into online services, reach out to the unbanked through changing from cash to code (translating cash to digital credit), facilitate B2P (business-to-person) transactions and even venture into partnerships with the government and other financial institutions apart from banks," added Theuri.