Absa Bank has allocated Sh100 billion to support small and medium enterprises in the country in the next three years.
The bank’s head of SMEs, Erastus Muthura, said the businesses are a key part of the economy and make a major contribution in provision of employment and poverty reduction.
Absa has started a series of empowerment forums to provide traders with a platform to engage and network while learning about financial solutions that can enable sustained business growth and resilience.
Muthura spoke in Murang’a county during an empowerment forum attended by over 200 women traders.
The bank will train more than 50,000 SMEs in the next five years through Absa Foundation that was launched in October with the objective of promoting the bank’s social and environmental contributions.
“Over half of the people who turn up for these trainings are women and over 45 per cent of the funds will go towards women-led businesses,” he said.
Similar trainings have been conducted in Coast, Western and Rift Valley regions.
In the Mt Kenya region, the bank
has held business empowerment
meetings with women entrepreneurs
from Isiolo, Meru, Garissa, Thika and
Nyeri.
