Absa Bank Visits Bungoma County With The Promise of Empowering SMEs

Absa Bank Kenya visited Bungoma County on Wednesday as part of its SME tour in the Western parts of the country under the Wezesha Biashara program that targets to empower at least 1000 SMEs, with 200 from Bungoma County.

Absa Bank in partnership with the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), landed in the county known for agriculture to provide coaching and mentorship to women-owned businesses in Bungoma.

Bungoma County has an estimated population of 1,670,570 according to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census with agriculture being the main economic activity. It is home to the largest sugar factories in the country. Apart from sugarcane farming, maize farming, dairy, and poultry are widely practiced in the county too.

“Locally, MSMEs continue to play a role accounting for up to 98 percent of all businesses in the country. They are employing close to 50 percent of the workforce and contributing up to 33 percent in GDP growth.”

“Today, I can confidently say we have one of the most resilient SMEs in the region. Bungoma County boasts of a vibrant business community with a diverse portfolio and its ripple effect is being experienced across the County’s value chains and ultimately the national economy,” said Susan Situma, Head of SME Banking at Absa Bank Kenya.

For entrepreneurs in Bungoma County, Absa Bank is committed to helping them 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 SMEs were also taken 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.

“In our accelerated efforts to reach our customers at the most remote level (Mashinani) level, we have revamped our Agency Banking proposition to ensure services are available where we have no physical presence. We have partnered with PostBank, Kenswitch, and standalone agencies across the county to supplement the physical outlets and mobile and internet banking,” added Susan.

For the agri-preneurs in Bungoma, Absa Bank introduced to them bespoke solutions to get their exporting needs whether its working capital, line of credit, overdraft, or long-term loans, and encouraged them to apply.

“As far as bulking cash depositing goes, we recently introduced a self-service Cash Deposit Machines solution at the Bungoma Branch that allows you to deposit 1,200 notes per minute with a large 200-note escrow capacity to minimize time spent on manual processing and storing counted notes,” she added.

The Absa Bank SME Tour is headed to Kitale for similar engagements.

Related Content: Absa Targets More Than 1,000 SMEs In Western Kenya With Training And Empowerment