According to Business Daily, Kenya’s first ever mobile phone bond sale  has been scheduled for March this year after volatile interest rates in East African nation forced the central bank to cancel its October issue.

Henry Rotich, Kenya’s minister of finance, told Business Daily last week that the government was targeting March as the possible issue date for the M-Akiba bond, that would raise 5 billion shillings ($50 million) through a five-year Treasury bond.

“The product should be in the market by the end of quarter one. What had delayed the launch was pricing, where interest rates were volatile. But now that it has stabilized I think we can go ahead,” Rotich said.

Interest rates in the East Africa’s largest economy rose to as much as 22 percent in short-term government papers last year as the central bank accepted high bids during its weekly T-bill auctions in an effort to attracted hard currencies from foreign investors and stem a local currency rout.

The inverted yield curve forced the bank to shelve its mobile-phone-bond until they interest rates stabilized.

The bond targeted ordinary citizen and was meant to stimulate public participation in the bond market, which has for long been the preserve of commercial bank and institutional investors.

The M-kiba bond will ride on the countries revolutionary mobile money ecosystem to sell bonds to individuals for as little as $30, down from the previous lower limit of about $500, on their mobile phones.

The bond is also aimed at helping the Kenyans improve their saving rate that currently stand at just 11 percent, half what their regional neighbors Uganda and Rwanda, while giving that country’s Treasury a cheap source of funds.

The East Africa’s largest economy of 45 million people, raised $2 billion last year in a debut Eurobond issuance amid strong global demand for African government debt.

“Obviously our strategy is to get cheap sources of funds so we’re looking at all answers for funding,” Rotich told Financial Times in September, adding that the yield on the M-Akiba bond would be higher than commercial banks’ savings rates but lower than the market rate on government debt.