Will You Benefit from i-Invest “Special Offer”?

i-Invest initial investment limit was lowered from Ksh 4,800 to Ksh 1,000 in a one day “special offer” that is valid for today only – 12^th July 2012. We embarked to find any practicality behind this special offer plus attempt to identify who stands to benefit from it.

In as much as lowering the investment limit to Ksh 1,000 is a good venture that could attract many Kenyans who can’t afford the Ksh 4,800 minimum many will probably miss out from it. This is why:

For starters, the special offer announcement was made yesterday afternoon – 11^th July 2012, approximately 20 hours ago.

Before you make your first time investment with i-Invest, you have to submit a copy of your ID or Passport via e-mail, post office or drop it off at any Old Mutual Branch across the country for verification.

After the special offer was posted on the social media we go in touch with Old Mutual Kenya to find out how long it takes for ID/Passports to be verified. We were informed that it takes approximately 48 hours, meaning, if you submitted your ID/Passport 20 hours ago, it will be verified on Friday afternoon- 13^th July 2012.

As per the i-Invest terms and conditions, its only after you have submitted your ID/Passport and your account has been registered, that you can make your first i-Invest investment. Any Investments made before will be refunded.

Considering the fact that the special offer is only valid on 12^th July 2012, most guys who had not submitted their documentation 48 hours ago stand to miss out on the special offer. Investors who had probably already planned to invest the Ksh 4,800 and probably still will. We tried to speak to Old Mutual about this discrepancy but they had no comment.

UPDATE: 16/07/2012: Old Mutual replied and clarified that verification time is two hours and not the earlier stated 48 hours. For that reason individuals that registered on the Thursday in question were able to take advantage of the offer.