AccessKenya shares started trading on the floor of the Nairobi Stock Exchange Monday following a successful Initial Public Offer - IPO. its listing on Nairobi's stock exchange attracted huge interest from investors. The firm, which provides wireless access and email, said the listing for 800m Kenyan shillings ($11.9m; £6m) was oversubscribed by 363%. Trading saw the price of the shares soar by 40% on its first day

The firm's Managing director Jonathan Somen urged investors who were allocated fewer shares in the IPO than what they applied for to use their refunds to buy the shares. He believed the outcome was "a clear signal from investors that they found the price of the shares and the quality of the prospects for our company attractive". "We have achieved one of our key IPO goals which is to have a healthy mixture of different sorts of investors represented on our shareholder register," he added.

Somen said the company would use the IPO funds to expand the Yello service to offer alternative telephone service in the country. The company also plans to expand Internet penetration for corporate and individual clients in their residential homes.

Buoyed by AccessKenya's success Nairobi Stock Exchange chairman Jimnah Mbaru said a strategy is being developed to increase the number of listed companies from the current 53 to over 2000 by the year 2030. The companies being targeted are Savings and Credit Cooperatives- Saccos, Family owned companies, large-scale farms and privately owned property. He challenged private companies to list on the NSE to enjoy the incentive of a lower corporate tax rate of 20 percent that was recently introduced.

AccessKenya has offices in Nairobi and Mombasa and offers web hosting for local and international firms.