Safaricom share offer in Rwanda has not been hit by counterfeit cheques, a brokerage firm handling the business in Rwanda said.

Simon Karenzi, Chief Executive Officer of Dyer and Blair Securities Rwanda, a subsidiary of Dyer and Blair Investment Bank said fraud cases have not been discovered as yet.

He was yesterday responding to reports that high tally of fraudulent cheques from investors and some stockbrokers was hampering allocation of shares in the ongoing Safaricom initial public offering (IPO).

The IPO is now in its verification and share allotment stage.
Karenzi said it was difficult for the fraud to take place in Rwanda because there were no cheque transfers required by individual investors.

"Individual investors were given an account on which to transfer the funds through their bankers while institutional investors where given bank guarantee and will pay after they have known the number of shares allotted to them,” he said on phone.

The Safaricom IPO in Rwanda is believed to have attracted several investors who forked out around $120 million. It is said to have played a big role in creating awareness of the investment and saving at the stock exchange. The lesson could have a great practical impact on the upcoming Sonarwa IPO.

Business Daily reported that  receiving banks for the Safaricom IPO have sorted out fraudulent applications close to Sh96 million of Sh191 billion collected and are now seeking the intervention of the transaction advisors.

The fraudsters were hoping to get share allocations using either fake printed deposit slips, which they handed in to unsuspecting stockbrokers or fake bankers’ cheques drawn for the Safaricom IPO.

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