Equity Bank has emerged as the Best Financier for Women Entrepreneurs at the Global SME Finance Awards 2022 organized by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The lender was also named the silver winner for SME Financier of the Year in Africa during the event held in Cambodia.
Equity Group has disbursed a total of KES 339.2 billion to 8.3 million individuals and women in groups running sole proprietorships, micro-businesses and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) since 2007 when the bank introduced loan products which enabled women to borrow as low as KES 1,000 using credit-scoring graduation model.
The judging panel applauded Equity Bank for its wide range of financial solutions including digital banking and trade finance products available to small businesses.
Dr James Mwangi, Equity Group CEO says they have rolled out a private sector focused stimulus package to accelerate the recovery and resilience of the region through a KES 700 billion funding dubbed ‘Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan’.
“We intend to reach 5 million MSMEs and 25 million individual borrowers over the next 5 years including women and youth owned businesses,” he said.
The Global SME Finance Awards is organized by IFC and the SME Finance Forum and endorsed by the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and celebrates outstanding achievements of financial institutions and fintech companies in delivering exceptional products and services to their SME clients.
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