Equity Bank - Impact | Proparco - Groupe Agence Française de Développement

Equity Bank, the leader in SME financing and the second largest bank in Kenya, is committed to small and medium-sized enterprises, women entrepreneurs and rural areas through dedicated services and products. PROPARCO’s loan will particularly support agriculture, as well as companies that contribute to the country’s “Big 4” development agenda: manufacturing, affordable housing, health and food security. This project is part of the French Choose Africa initiative. USD 20m out of the USD 100m loan will be earmarked to finance projects with climate co-benefits.
This project is expected to support a total of some 240 MSMEs and over 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in the coming years.

Client presentation

Equity Bank, the second largest bank in Kenya, stands out for its continued support to the private sector and its commitment to small and medium-sized enterprises, women entrepreneurs and rural areas through its dedicated services and products. It is today the leader in SME financing in Kenya.

Project description

The operation will allow the bank to scale up its support for SMEs and climate change adaptation projects and fight gender inequality. It will also finance sectors with high social impacts as defined by the Kenyan Government’s “Big 4 Agenda” (manufacturing, affordable housing, health and food security).

This project will thereby contribute to the French Choose Africa initiative implemented by AFD Group and its private sector financing arm Proparco. Its objective is to earmark EUR 2.5bn to finance start-ups, microenterprises and SMEs in Africa between 2018 and 2022.

USD 20m out of the USD 100m loan will be earmarked to finance projects with climate co-benefits. This project will thereby contribute to AFD’s climate objective and the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

This project is part of the 2X Challenge initiative. This multi-stakeholder initiative aims to support projects that empower women as entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees and consumers of products and services, and increase their participation in the economy.

This initiative thus contributes to Sustainable Development Goal #5 (Gender Equality).

Project impact

The project will support the development of loans for SMEs in the country. Based on the average loan and maturity allocated to Kenyan SMEs by Equity Bank, Proparco’s financing is expected to support some 2,100 additional SMEs. Proparco will support the substantial growth in the FI’s volume of SME financing, which will increase to some EUR 1.6m over the next five years.

Download the project sheet