Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), the leading financial sector advocacy group, has entered a partnership with GIZ that seeks to enhance access to finance for farmers and agri-business enterprises. The collaboration will facilitate capacity building among lenders, aiding them to gain deeper insights on specific green technology financing, with a view of enabling them to develop tailor made products.
With support from the Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) programme, the Digital Transformation Center and SDG Market Building Project, funded by the German Government and implemented by GIZ, several e-learnings will be developed and deployed under KBA’s Sustainable Finance Initiative Online Learning Platform.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, KBA CEO, Dr. Habil Olaka called on banks to support Agri-business enterprises, challenging small scale farmers to establish businesses that are bankable.
According to a 2018 KBA report entitled “Realisation of Full Potential of the Agriculture Sector”, commercial lending to the Agricultural Sector remains low, accounting for 4 percent of the total lending portfolios.
Armin Kloeckner, Head of the Agriculture Programme at GIZ noted that “Agricultural finance is strategically important for eliminating hunger and boosting prosperity. The Sustainable Finance Initiative (SFI) provides an excellent platform to demonstrate the potential of green technologies for both, the agriculture and the finance sectors.”
Besides the training, the partners will ensure that green and digital investment projects with suitable products offered by KBA member banks, also address the challenges agribusinesses face in accessing bank loans. The partnership will enable awareness creation among the public and private sector stakeholders to enable a functioning market for green and digital technologies in Kenya.
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