ABSA Bank has disrupted the industry by building region focused solutions and empowerment centered training sessions for MSMEs. Starting with Western Region the Bank has traversed the counties of Western Kenya in a bid to not only train and empower MSMEs in the region, but also to introduced highly competitive Market based financial products by the bank built to address the needs of MSMEs.
Day four of this tour continued with Kitale the headquarters of Trans Nzoia county a largely agro-focused county that looks to diversify the county economy with more economic activities. The county welcomes investments from Hospitality, service industry, logistics, agro-processing among others. Kitale town is the headquarters of the larger Trans-Nzoia County. The county is largely an agricultural region with the main crop being maize. It is often referred to as the food basket of Kenya given its massive tracks of land that are maize farming. Other economic activities within the county and the town include dairy and poultry farming. MSMEs are the engine to the economic vibrancy of the Kitale economy.
The major environmental concerns include climate change, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, frequent droughts, floods and landslides. The county also experiences high levels of deforestation, land, water and air pollution and challenges of solid waste management. The team from Absa and KNCCI took those in attendance through ways they could access markets and information through training and empowerment, as well as through partnerships on their business growth. They were also equipped with critical financial and non-financial best practice skills to address gaps in business, management, and leadership skills.
“Trans Nzoia County is home to a vibrant business community with a diverse portfolio of businesses ranging from agro-processing, transport, trade, and tourism. It is against this backdrop that we have picked Trans Nzoia County as part of our multi-county business support tours in Western Kenya as we seek to enhance the capacity of the county’s SME sector as well as show our support towards the growth and development of existing and emerging players in the Western region’s economy,” said Peter Mutua, the Customer Network Director at Absa Bank Kenya. Absa Kenya landed in Kitale at a time the majority of SMEs within and without the town are emerging out of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic that threatened to sink most of them. It also came at a time the SMEs were facing challenges of access to markets, access to information, and inadequate training and coaching. Absa Bank Kenya, beyond financial solutions, has adopted a holistic approach to SME empowerment where business owners are trained on business sustainability, funding, bookkeeping, and networking to ensure they become bankable.
“We are also committed to continuing to support our SME customers with business insights, networks, and expertise to transform their businesses. It is our firm belief that through candid conversations, we shall be in a better position as a bank to support high, broad-based, inclusive, and sustainable growth of SMEs in partnership with counties,” added Peter.
Peter said that Absa Bank is committed to helping businesses in Trans-Nzoia County have access to finances to grow their businesses. SMEs were introduced to how they could apply and access unsecured lending of up to 10 million shillings, payable over 5 years for existing borrowers, and 7 million shillings for new borrowers, payable in 4 years.
The tour, which has traversed Kisumu, Kisii, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu Counties targeted to impact over 1000 MSMEs which ABSA Bank Kenya seeks to empower in a bid to promote MSME growth strategies The bank has disbursed over KES 50 billion over the last five years in loans through the Wezesha Biashara Program repositioning it as an enabler for small, medium and micro enterprises, and as a result recording double-digit growth from the sector in the last one year alone. Also, the bank has impacted over 20,000 women businesses in the last one year through the Women in Business proposition that seeks to empower over 1 million women by providing unsecured lending of up to KES 10 million, payable over 5 years for existing borrowers and KES 7 million for new borrowers payable in 4 years.
Absa Bank Kenya PLC Managing Director Mr. Yusuf Omari said the campaign is aimed at building the capacity of businesses in the Western region as part of Absa’s commitment to continue working with the people of Kenya to achieve shared success and bring new possibilities to life.
Enjoy ABSA Bank Tailored products for the SMEs by sending the term #Wezesha to 22268 or by visiting https://www.absabank.co.ke/business/bank/sme-business-accounts/