How Asante Financial Services Group Is Enabling Financial Inclusion and Boosting SMEs

By Juma / Published May 23, 2022 | 9:00 am

KEY POINTS

The coming of the Covid-19 disrupted the SME sector the most. There are no clear stats on how many SMEs shut down in Kenya during the period. It is estimated that at least 4 million Kenyans lost their jobs and “many businesses shut down.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Some of the major challenges facing the Kenyan SME include inadequate access to credit, complicated and high tax regimes, and the high cost of doing business among others. Of all these challenges, inadequate access to credit reigns supreme.

Kenya’s economy thrives on the wheels of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The sector employs about 86 percent of Kenya’s population and contributes about 45.5 percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Despite the fact that the SME sector in Kenya is what the economy is anchored on, the sector faces a myriad of challenges that often threaten to bring it to its knees. Statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicate that at least 450,000 SMEs close shop annually, 30,000 monthly, and at least 1,000 businesses die daily.

It is on the premise of the challenges facing the SME that the Asante Financial Services Group was founded. This is a Credit-Led Neo Bank that supports Africa’s growth through the provision of financial services to growing businesses.

The Group commenced operations in early 2018 and has grown to become a leading SME Digital Bank in the region. This has helped, among other things, increase financial inclusion among SMEs in Kenya as well as support businesses.

“We have partnered with the largest telcos, mobile-based marketplaces, airlines, retailers, payment processors, insurance companies, smartphone phone OEMs, and large FMCGs, as corporate channel partners, to access the MSMEs in their ecosystems. Our presence countries are Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Rwanda with active plans to expand to 7 more countries by 2025,” said the Group.

The Group has a product such as Bloom, a loan product offered by Asante Financial Services Group to Safaricom’s Lipa Na M-PESA merchants so that they can have funds to pay for their services or pay their suppliers as well as get the stock.

For more information on Asante Financial Services Group, click here.

About Juma

Juma is an enthusiastic journalist who believes that journalism has power to change the world either negatively or positively depending on how one uses it.(020) 528 0222 or Email: info@sokodirectory.com

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