Pan Africa Asset Management (PAAM), an investment management arm of the Pan Africa Holdings Group, one of the largest and longest-established financial services groups in Kenya, has received approval by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to register the Pan Africa Unit Trust Scheme as a collective investment scheme.

The approval of the unit trust paves way for PAAM to begin distributing unit trusts to the market.

PAAM will initially start offering three unit trust products: Pan Africa Pesa+, a money market fund; Pan Africa Pata+, a dividend fund; and Pan Africa Chama+, a balanced fund.

Kennedy Muriithi, PAAM CEO, said: “Pan Africa Asset Management is committed to delivering to our customers solutions that add value and make sense to them. We therefore believe the market will respond positively to our value proposition and expect that our unit trusts will be an additional solution to the variety of innovative solutions that we offer our valued customers to grow and protect their wealth.”

Muriithi said all the three funds are designed to accommodate a majority of the public with a minimum initial contribution of Sh2, 500.

The unit funds will also allow partial or full withdrawal any time.

“This scheme is ideal for everybody looking to save a part of their income for discretionary purposes, or for long term capital accumulation intentions, while simultaneously earning what we believe will be a competitive return. Our investment expertise across different asset classes will ensure our customers have exposure to a variety of investments,” Muriithi said.

Pan Africa Asset Management began in Kenya as Sanlam Investment Management in 2007 before re-branding to Pan Africa Asset Management in 2014.

The purpose of this re-branding exercise was to more closely align the investment management wing of the group to its sisters companies.

Pan Africa Holdings Group is itself majority owned by The Sanlam Group, which is, by assets managed, the largest investment firm on the African continent.