I know this question has been asked in many forms, but please indulge me. A friend asked, if he had 1 million KES, and wanted a moderate risk investment, which would be the best?

I dont think he has the time to actively invest in stocks, so that doesn't count. Does he go for the fund managers, i.e British American, Old Mutual? What would the investment gurus here suggest?

I agree with AliBaba.. Go for some long term G.O.K paper which is yielding around 10% p.a... The only charges are a negligible commission and a 15% with holding tax on interest...

Plus its practically risk free...

Invest it on real estate here prime land after the one year some good returns.

1M Ksh is a lot of money. this translates to above USD12,500.

I would have headed to Westlands based dry associates seek advice and invest on a USD or other strong currency denominated products as follows :-

(i) 50% on a USD denomonated hedge fund with guaranteed returns circa 10% P. A.

(ii) Foreign currency denominated balanced fund
product that invests 50 % on fixed income and the other 50 % global stocks.

This is because 10% return in Ksh cannot be compared to equivalent return in convertible strong currencies on the long term.

If you pay a visit there they will guide and educate you better on a suitable investment product that suits your investment objective.

Before you pay a visit to their office, check out their website for their physical address in Kenya and other info :-

www.dryassociates.com

Had it been you are based in West Africa like me I would have suggested Accra Ghana based mutual funds of data bank group. www.databankgroup.com

One of my friends had 4 million naira (circa 2M ksh), he did not want to invest in stocks so I advised him to head there as I also invest there.

He invested as follows in Jan 2010:-

(i) 50% in Mfund (Fixed income like bonds, treasury bills).

(ii) 50% ib Bfund (50% stocks, 50% fixed income)

I really persuaded him on Bfund as he wanted to invest all in Mfund. My conviction was because of the precedent, that this witty Databank guys in Ghana invest not only in stocks of Ghana, but on 11 other stocks markets in Africa (including Kenya), so there is some spread.

For the year ending Dec 2010, here are the returns :-

Mfund 12.99 %
Bfund 34 %

Be aware 1USD = 1.44 Ghana cedis, so my friend have strong currency advantage here because 10% return in Nigeria naira cannot be compared to 10% gain in Ghana Cedis because 1 Ghance Cedi = 100 Naira.

This just an illustration not an invitation to invest in Ghana !!!