Equity Group has launched a KSh678 billion private sector-focused stimulus package to accelerate economic recovery and resilience in the Eastern and Central Africa region as it recovers from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Equity Group’s Eastern and Central Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan is envisaged to provide financing of up to 2% of the combined GDP of the six economies in which the Group operates (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, and DRC).
The facility will be available to 5 million MSMEs and 25 million individual borrowers for the next 5 years.
“The plan conceives that the 5 million businesses largely comprising MSMEs will create 50 million jobs, 25 million jobs directly and an equal number of jobs indirectly as the ecosystems of business become more cohesive, connected, and ultimately synergize and grow,” said James Mwangi, Equity Group Managing Director and CEO.
The recovery plan will have special focus on youth and women, supporting them to be the primary drivers of creating and expanding opportunities in the real economy.
Under the primary sectors, principally Food and Agriculture, the focus will be on unlocking productivity gains and value addition ecosystems to achieve food security for the region while increasing value creation in the primary sectors, which are the highest employers, highest foreign exchange-earners and the highest contributors of export goods.
The recovery and resilience plan seeks to leverage productive capacities and comparative advantages to transform the region into a manufacturing hub that converts agricultural raw material into finished products for export and national use.
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