Stanbic bank eyes to empower women in SMEs

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Stanbic bank has set eyes to woman empowerment especially those in Small and medium enterprise (SMEs) through financial inclusion.

During a press briefing, the bank launched the Value Proposition for women dubbed D.A.D.A. that will provide essential financial and non-financial services to women across the Country.

The move is aimed to empower SMEs sector mostly run by women.

A kitty of KES 20 billion has been set aside by Stanbic Bank to specifically lend to SMEs in Kenya between now and 2020.

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“DADA”, an acronym for ‘Dare to Aspire Dare to Achieve’ is tailored to help women develop financially from a personal and business perspective.  This is, in turn, will help secure their families, impact communities and grow the economy.

Charles Mudiwa, Stanbic Bank Chief Executive said that the bank is committed to sustainably provide women with the banking solutions that truly address their needs.

“We have committed to going out of our way to arm Kenyan women, especially women in business, with the tools they need to participate more fully in the financial system. With the KES 20 billion kitties, we shall target women with viable business plans in enterprises of all sizes operating in the formal and informal sectors”, said Mr. Mudiwa.

This comes at a time when Kenya has committed to halving the financial inclusion gender gap by 2021 after signing the Denarau Action Plan initiated by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI). Currently, the gender gap stands at nine percentage points in the developing world representing over 1 billion women who are still excluded in access to financial services.

DADA will address women’s need to save, borrow, invest and protect. It will give women access to education, information, networking opportunities, and wellness.

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On his part, Manuel Moses, IFC Country Manager said that their 2017 IFC MSME Finance gap study showed that 33% of all micro and formal SMEs in Kenya is owned by Women – 517,000 in total.  He added that IFC partnership with Stanbic Bank has provided an opportunity to develop the value proposition that also incorporates gender-aggregated data to achieve maximum impact and results.

“This will be a continuous process to ensure we address women’s financial needs. Women must become a focal point of our collective financial inclusion efforts as a country”, Said Mr.Manuel.

 

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