Equity Group Plc intensified its ‘shared prosperity’ business model in the year ended December 31, 2022 by investing Sh72.7 billion in social impact projects.
The projects are anchored around its Foundation’s key pillars of health, energy and environment, food and agriculture, enterprise development and financial inclusion, education and leadership development, and social protection.
Speaking at the launch of the bank's 2022 Sustainability Report, the Group's MD James Mwangi said the bank's principle of putting people before profits greatly contributed good performance.
“We recognise that beyond a regulator license we also get a license from our host communities, and we have continued to treat them as significant stakeholders and invest in them through our shared prosperity programme,” Mwangi said.
During the period under review, the group scaled its Equity Afia health franchise to 77 medical centres from 41 the previous year, serving 1.3 million patients. This is more than double its target of 600,000 patient visits by end of the year.
The Group has over the last two years scaled the Wings to Fly Scholarship Programme with 18,000 Elimu Scholarships by the Government of Kenya with the support of World Bank bringing the Secondary School Scholarships to 17,820.
In 2022, 88 per cent of the Wings to Fly graduates attained university entry grades.
The Equity Leadership Programme has thus far benefitted 17,000 scholars, 893 being beneficiaries of Global Scholarships and the balance attending Kenyan public universities and TVETs.
In its efforts to conserve the environment, Equity continued with the tree-planting initiative launched in 2019 that aims to see 35 million trees planted by 2024.
This is in support of the national government's plan to increase and maintain the country’s forest cover at 10 per cent. So far, 21.8 million trees have been planted.
In addition to tree planting activities, Equity through its foundation encourages conservation measures especially in schools and smart use of natural resources by expanding forest cover, improving water security, access to clean energy products and promoting the use of renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies.
It is providing financing for one million clean energy devices, offering to transform 30,000 schools that use wood fuel for cooking in their kitchens to use LPG.
So far, 375,683 clean energy products have been distributed through this initiative up from 273,635 in 2021.
The Group has continued to offer support to the Government, UN Agencies and donor community to reach 4.5 million households with cash payments under the Social Safety Net Programme from 3.3 million the previous year.
The Group has intensified effort to transform peasant farmers with agri-business and enhance the financial and entrepreneurial capacity of over 3.9 million enterprises.