On 5th September 2024, Orbit Securities launched its INUKA Money Market Fund (IMMF) in Dar es Salaam.
A money market fund is an investment scheme that focuses on short-term, low-risk investments such as money market instruments and highly liquid treasury securities.
Orbit explains that INUKA is a collective investment scheme designed to provide consistent returns with minimal risk by investing in money market instruments across the East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC), for geographical diversification, and the potential for higher returns.
The fund’s benchmark is set at the Tanzania Treasury Bill rate plus 50 basis points and the base currency of the scheme is Tanzanian Shillings only with a minimum investment is TZS 10,000.
Units are offered at TZS 100 during the Initial Sale and at Net Assets Value (NAV) during the Subsequent Sale, targeting a TZS 10 billion fund size.
The scheme is open to Tanzanians and foreign investors including individuals and corporate bodies.
In its Investment Prospectus Orbit explains that the scheme’ aims to build wealth for Tanzanians, especially middle and low-income groups by offering a chance to invest idle/surplus funds for short to medium terms, with flexible withdrawals without exit fees.
In addition to the Money Market Fund, Orbit also makes available its INUKA Index Fund where capitals are invested in the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) top domestic market capitalization stocks to track their overall performance.
Speaking at the fund’s launch, the CEO of Orbit Securities, Godfrey Malauri, said, “To drive growth, we must encourage domestic savings and investment by strengthening our capital markets and developing investment products that meet the needs of our people and those abroad (diaspora). We need to create investment opportunities accessible to investors, meeting their needs. Our Asset Management division is well-positioned to offer investment solutions and promote growth for low-income investors and institutions.”
For his part, Dr. Charles Mwamwaja, Commissioner for Financial Sector Development at the Minister of Finance of Tanzania, highlighted the importance of collective investment schemes like the INUKA Fund for both personal and national development.
He emphasized that the fund not only strengthens the financial status of individual investors but also contributes to the country’s economic growth by enhancing investment capital.
Tanzania Collective Investment Schemes
According to a recent analysis by the Guardian newspaper, the combined assets value of all collective investment schemes (CIS) operating in Tanzania has reached TZS 2.3 trillion.
Currently, Tanzania has eight registered collective investment schemes, the majority managed by the Unit Trust of Tanzania (UTT-AMIS).
CMSA has lowered the amount of minimum investments in capital markets from TZS 1 million to TZS 10,000 to attract more investments.
