Most Kenyans keep their savings in a money market fund and call it "investing."

There's nothing wrong with that, but if you want real wealth building, you need to own a piece of Kenyan businesses.

Here's how to build a serious stock portfolio on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. 🧵 1. How should you structure your portfolio?

First, think of your portfolio in three buckets:

a) Anchor stocks - these should represent 50–60% of your portfolio

They should include stable, blue-chip companies like Safaricom, Equity Group, KCB.

These are stable, profitable, and market leaders in their respective industries.

You are the greatest asset in your financial life.Remove you — and everything collapses.

A thread on why protection comes before investment 🧵 Every day you wake up and produce.

Your income funds your lifestyle, educates your children, supports your family, and carries your dreams.

But here's the hard question most people avoid:

What happens to everything you've built… when you can no longer produce it?

If I was a beginner investor who just started investing in the NSE,

Here’s how I would invest KES 500K in the NSE today

Portfolio breakdown below👇👇 1. Which platform I’m I using to invest?

The newly launched Ziidi Trader by Safaricom on the “My One App” is easy to get started as it only takes a few seconds for you to get started

And also is cost effective as it is cheaper compared to other stock brokers and there are no charges when moving your money from your Mpesa wallet to the Ziidi Trader platform.

Get started here: awj8.adj.st/mini-app?id=34…

I've seen so many people here saying they've already liquidated — or are planning to liquidate — their NSE positions ahead of the 2027 elections.

Here's why that may not be the smartest move. 🧵👇 First, let's address the elephant in the room: does the NSE actually crash during election years?

The data will surprise you.

The NSE All Share Index has been positive in 2 of the last 3 electioneering periods:

📈 2012: +40.4%
📈 2017: +28.4%
📉 2022: -23.4%

And that 2022 drop?

The Russia-Ukraine war tanked global markets that year — the S&P 500 was also down 18%.

That wasn't a Kenya story. That was a world story. Equities tanked globally, not only in Kenya.

chart credit @kenyanwalstreet

Your employer's group life cover is not enough.

Here's why you should get a personal whole life cover separate from your employers' group life cover👇👇 Group life cover through your employer ends the day your employment does.

Resign. Retrenchment. Company closes down. You retire.

In any of these scenarios your cover disappears with your job.

You are left completely unprotected.

The NSE is full of noise.

But right now, there are 5 stocks with real fundamentals, real upside, and in some cases — dividends about to hit your account.

Here are the top 5 stocks I'd buy on the NSE this May.

A thread.🧵 Before we get into the picks — a quick framework.

We look at 3 things:

1. Is the stock undervalued vs. its earnings power?
2. Is there a near-term catalyst (dividend, results)?
3. Does the risk-reward make sense at current prices?

Every pick below passes all three. Let's go.

Here's how smart families are using whole life insurance to protect their wealth and that of their families.

Breakdown below👇 Smart parents understand that financial planning has 3 critical stages:

a) Wealth Creation — This involves buying assets and building good portfolios.

Think stocks, bonds, real estate, business. Building assets. Your goal is to growth your networth

b) Wealth Protection — This is where you protect yourself and your family from any eventualities in life. Insurance that protects against death, critical illness, permanent disability.

c) Legacy Planning — wills, trusts, succession planning.

Most of us only focus on the first step. But if something happens to you before steps 2 and 3 are in place...

All that wealth you worked so hard to build could go to waste. Or worse — spark conflict.

🧵 THREAD:

How to use a Whole Life Insurance policy to replace your income & protect your family's cash flow

Read this especially if you have children or dependents. 1/ Let me start with an uncomfortable truth that most people avoid thinking about.

If you died tomorrow, what happens to your family financially?

Not emotionally — we know that's devastating. I mean practically. Who pays rent?

Who pays school fees? Who puts food on the table?

Most families in Kenya are one funeral away from financial collapse. That's not dramatic. That's reality.

About the Ned bank - NCBA deal, there's something that many people are getting wrong.

What's the maximum NCBA shares you need to own for you to qualify for the full cash payout of KES 105?

It's not 4500, 5000, 7400, 9400, etc

The correct figure is 7519 NCBA shares The offer document says that shareholders who would receive fewer than 200 Nedbank shares upon tendering their 66% entitlement shall be paid entirely in cash at KES 10,500 per 100 NCBA shares (= KES 105 per share) instead of the standard 80% NED shares / 20% cash mix.

Working backwards from the exchange ratio of 4.02994 NED per 100 NCBA shares tendered:

To receive exactly 200 NED shares:

200 ÷ 0.0402994 = 4,963 NCBA shares tendered. Since you can tender a maximum of 66% of your holding:

4,963 ÷ 0.66 = 7,519 shares total holding.

The KES 105 all-cash alternative therefore applies ONLY to shareholders holding fewer than approximately 7,519 NCBA shares in total.

Holders of 7,520 or more shares receive the standard KES 98.72 equivalent (80% NED + 20% cash).

(See image below that confirms the same in the offer document)

Two bonds are live in Kenya's primary market.

KMRC is raising KES 3.0bn — an 8-year amortising bond, min. KES 100,000, closes 21 May 2026

I&M Bank is raising KES 10.0bn — a 5yr 6m bullet bond, min. KES 500,000, closes 15 May 2026

Both offer a coupon of 12.20% p.a.

Which one should you pick?

Breakdown below👇👇 Let's start with the KMRC one.

Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company is a public-private partnership whose shareholders include the Government of Kenya and the World Bank's IDA.

Its entire purpose is to provide long-term funding to mortgage lenders so that more Kenyans can access affordable home loans.

It does not take deposits, it does not run a commercial lending book — it is essentially a development finance vehicle with quasi-sovereign backing.

That ownership structure matters enormously when you are assessing credit risk.

Assuming you can manage to save 20K - 50K a month for the next 5 years,

You can easily create a portfolio that generates a passive income of 10K - 30K per month.

Here's a simple portfolio that you can create👇 A portfolio is a collection of assets owned by one person or an entity.

Simply put, a portfolio represents all the investments that you own.

These assets or investments may include stocks, bonds, real estate, mutual funds, etc.

In Kenya, one of the best personal finance decisions you can make is staying away from any personal debts.

Stay away from mortgages, stay away from car loans, stay away from any type of consumer debt.

Here's why you should stay away from these debts👇 1. In Kenya, the cost of borrowing is way higher than the return of most asset classes.

The average bank loan is at 13-17% while arguably one of the best returning asset class in Kenya, long term Treasury bonds, can only give you 13%

Hence it makes more financial sense to save up for anything rather than financing it with a loan.

This is because you will be making more money for the bank, than you can make in your investments.

Hence you will be losing money in the long run. Working so hard but only rewarding your bank.

5 Pieces of Financial advice that work in other developed markets but not in Kenya:

1. Use other peoples' money AKA debt to build wealth (more so in Real Estate)

"Use a mortgage to develop a property, use rental income to repay the mortgage."

This doesn't work in Kenya Loans in Kenya are super expensive thanks to our Central bank rate and high returns from GoK bonds

Banks would rather lend money to the government than to individuals & businesses.

The average benchmark asset in Kenya returns lower than the average cost of lending.

This is not the case in developed markets.

For example, the S&P 500 has averaged higher returns that the average mortgage rate in the U.S. since 1957

🧵 THREAD:

How to use a Whole Life Insurance policy to replace your income & protect your family's cash flow

Read this especially if you have children or dependents. 1/ Let me start with an uncomfortable truth that most people avoid thinking about.

If you died tomorrow, what happens to your family financially? Not emotionally — we know that's devastating.

I mean practically. Who pays rent? Who pays school fees? Who puts food on the table?

Most families in Kenya are one funeral away from financial collapse. That's not dramatic. That's reality.

🧵 THREAD:

How to use a Whole Life Insurance policy to replace your income & protect your family's cash flow

Read this especially if you have children or dependents. 👇 1/ Let me start with an uncomfortable truth that most people avoid thinking about.

If you died tomorrow, what happens to your family financially?

Not emotionally — we know that's devastating. I mean practically. Who pays rent? Who pays school fees? Who puts food on the table?

Most families in Kenya are one funeral away from financial collapse. That's not dramatic. That's reality.

Most people who are investing in apartments in Kenya, are just buying because it feels good to own one

Or because their friends are buying. Not because it's a great investment

You end up tying your capital to illiquid, low yielding assets.

Here are better alternatives👇👇 Why did I say that most people who own apartments are only buying them because it feels good, and not because it's a good investment opportunity?

If you own an apartment, do you know what's it's rental yield?

Do you know it's current market value?

Most people don't have any idea.

Real Estate has two return elements:

1. Rental yield
2. Capital gains.

The banking sector is the most vibrant sector of the NSE.

Here's a thread analyzing which is the best banking sector to buy in 2026:

KCB vs Equity, Stanchart vs Stanbic, etc

Breakdown below👇👇 1. Earning growth.

Equity Group is the most profitable bank with a PAT of 52.12B as of Q3 2025

Equity Group is also experience significant growth as it's earnings grew 32.7% in nine months to September 2025 as compared to previous period in 2024.

Only HFCK with an impressive growth of 104% had a higher earnings growth rate.

2. Price to Earnings

Despite that, Equity group is the most undervalued bank on a Price to earnings ratio, as it trades at the lowest PE of 4.19x compared to the industry average of 6.17.

HFCK is the most expensive banking sector stock at a 16 PE

PE compares the share price to earnings per share to show how much investors are paying for each unit of profit.

A low PE vs peers may point out to an undervaluation

There are three funds that every investor should have:

1. An Emergency Fund
2. A Sinking Fund
3. A Run Away Fund

Here's what they are and how to create them👇👇 1. An Emergency fund.

What is it?

This is a set amount of money that covers your daily expenses for a certain period of time.

It should cover your daily *normal* expenses for a period of 3-6 months.

If I was getting started with investing in the NSE via the newly launched Ziidi Trader by M-PESA,

Here are the 5 stocks I Would consider buying to kickstart my NSE portfolio on the Ziidi Trader Platform👇🏽👇🏽 1. Equity Bank Group

Equity is currently trading at a Price to Book ratio of 0.95 which is slightly lower than the average banking sector P/B of 1.05X

Equity has the highest Return on Equity (ROE) among banking sector stocks at 26.6% which is higher than the banking sector average of 18.8%

Equity bank is currently trading at a Price to Earnings ratio of 4.12 which is lower than the banking sector average of 5.2X

All the above metrics point out that Equity Group is undervalued vs it’s banking sector peers which presents a buying opportunity

This week, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, visited Standard Chartered Kenya for deep client engagements & high-level training.

Stanchart partners with Global Fund Houses like BlackRock to provide access to high-grade global investment solutions.

More details👇👇 BlackRock manages over USD 14 trillion in assets globally making it the largest asset manager in the world.

Institutions, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and sophisticated investors across continents trust them to steward capital at scale.

Instead of using that 500K to buy another plot of land that will not generate any cash flows for you,

Why not explore other options?

500K in an IFB with a 14% coupon will give you 70K per annum

500K in a dividend king of the NSE like BAT will earn you 65K in dividends.

500K in a SACCO like Stima Sacco will earn you 60K in dividends from share capital or 47K from rebates on Savings. And if you are in pursuit of capital gains and not passive income,

Other financial assets can give you a better shot than that 1/8 of an acre in the middle of nowhere.

You can explore options like: Special funds, Exchange Traded Funds(ETFs), Global and local stocks, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.