Watchoo Talking Bout Willis?
I was browsing through the Standard’s business section and they have a piece on yet another brokerage company that is playing footsy with clients money. According to the article, “Nyaga Stockbrokers Limited is fighting to clear its name after cheques it issued recently were returned unpaid. When contacted for comment on Monday, Nyaga Stockbrokers Managing Director, Mr Patrick Gakiavih denied issuing bouncing cheques, saying that these could only have been Eveready Initial Public Offer (IPO) refund cheques. However, Eveready East Africa managing director Mr Steven Smith vigorously denied this“. These are diametrically opposing answers, so somebody must be lying.
This brings me back to an issue we were discussing below. If you use your creativity, imagination and intelligence to come up with a business model that works, you don’t need to steal! This brokerage company should be able to make enough money honestly just based on the high commissions they charge their customers.
Plus, the competition is not that stiff (yet) and there’s demand for these services. What the heck is up with this Gakiaviah dude? Did he think people wouldn’t notice the bounced cheques? You’d think he’d be trying to build up his firms reputation and customer base before the industry becomes more competitive (& the competition is coming. They are too many talented Kenyans who have both the IT & the finance backgrounds, both in Kenya and in the diaspora who are looking to break into this industry) — You can’t “lock-out” talent in this global economy.
Maybe it’s a good thing these cheats are being weeded out now. However, are there others hiding in the wings?
Other Nyaga-likes are there. By the time their problems come out in public, it would normally have taken toll on many a clients nerves. I did close my account with Nyaga 8 months ago after the whisperings about their position had become too frequent. Infact the problem normally starts with perpetual postponement of a clients cheque which many people would initially take as backoffice innefficiencies, and when this persists, they would just slip out quietly by transfering their holdings to another broker without reporting the problem broker to the regulatory authorities.
You can’t leave us hanging like that. Identify these other cheaters.
If these guys can’t compete in an environment where the NSE is purposely locking out competitors (by charging almost a million dollars to start a brokerage firm) they’ll get wiped out when this industry becomes more competitive.
It sounds like he was just using clients money to go on shopping spree’s and incorrectly thinking that he could recoup it when the market rebounded, but that’s not where brokers make their money! they make money off the commissions on client trades.