Ipahco
A stockbroker is licensed to buy and sell listed securities on your instruction. It is the only route to the exchange for a private investor — there is no way to place an order on the NSE yourself.
Most brokers are also CDSC depository agents, which means they can open the CDS account that actually records your ownership.
Open a CDS account through a broker, which needs an ID, a KRA PIN, a passport photograph and bank details. Fund the account, then place orders by app, phone or email.
The shares are registered to you at the CDSC, not to the broker. If the broker fails, your shares are still yours — which is the practical reason the depository exists.
A broker has no return. It has a price, and that price is one of the few costs in Kenyan investing you can know exactly before you commit.
Round-trip dealing costs are around 1.78% per side — brokerage at the retail rate, 0.29% in NSE, CMA, CDSC and investor compensation levies, and 16% VAT on the commission. You pay it going in and again coming out, which is why a 2% gain is not a gain.
The full list is on the regulator's own page, which is where it stays current.
See the live list at the CMAA broker licence plus the corporate side — listings, rights issues, advisory.
Where bonds are actually traded — largely over the counter, largely by banks.
The licence behind investing from your phone. Safaricom and Airtel Money hold it.
Futures on the NSE derivatives board. Leverage, and losses that are not capped at your deposit.
A forex broker that takes the other side of your trade itself.
A forex broker that passes your order out to the market instead of taking it on.
Licensed to sell coffee at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, on behalf of growers.