Co-operative Bank of Kenya on Thursday, September 14 received a gold award as the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Financier of the Year in Africa at the global awards celebrated in Mumbai, India.
Co-op Bank was feted by the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, recognizing its efforts to empower small businesses.
“We are encouraged by this award as a demonstration that we have listened, studied and built competitive solutions for SMEs to realize their goals,” stated Co-op Bank Managing Director and CEO Gideon Muriuki on the fete.
The awards are organized by the SME Finance Forum and endorsed by the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI).
“This competition makes me very positive that we are on the right track to greatly narrow the SME finance gap,” stated Matthew Gamser, CEO of the SME Finance Forum.
The SME Finance Forum is a network of over 250 leading banks, Non-bank financial institutions (NFBIs), fintechs, and development banks, created by the G20 in 2012 and managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Following the win, Co-op bank vowed to continue supporting SMEs by giving them friendly credits to promote business sustainability in the country.
The bank was recognized after it set aside Ksh14 billion for lending to small businesses in July.
The seven-year Tier II facility was arranged by DEG, a Germany-headquartered development finance institution and a subsidiary of KfW Group and a consortium of financial institutions.
At the end of 2022, Co-op listed its long-term borrowings valued at Ksh48.1 billion, an improvement from 2022 in which it recorded Ksh42.9 billion.
The borrowings were from among others the IFC (Ksh15.6 billion) European Investment Bank East Africa (Ksh6.9 billion), AFD Microfinance (Ksh1.16 billion), and Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (Ksh467.5 million).
According to experts, co-op bank is positioning itself to be a market leader by targeting small traders who form a majority of businesses in the country.
SMEs constitute 98 per cent of businesses in Kenya and are estimated to have an annual job creation of 30 per cent of all new jobs.
