By Boniface Manyala
Publication date: 25th June, 2007

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has urged women in the country to take full participation in business activities from the smallest to the largest enterprises and called upon them to nurture a culture of saving accumulations of their returns which he termed as “essential to the success of business enterprises.” The president added that women should adopt thrift and prudent spending as their guiding business principles, “I encourage you to open bank accounts, which are an essential financial management and planning tool in modern business,”

The Head of State spoke while he launched the National Strategy for the Promotion of Women in Business and Investment in Kenya, at Kenyatta International Conference Centre on 25th June 2007. The strategy is an initiative of Equity Bank in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). President Kibaki noted that the participation of women in the formal business sector remained unacceptably low, laying emphasis that there was need to develop aggressive and creative forms of support to women to progressively enable them attain the status of equal partners with men in the formal business sector and public service.

The president underscored his government’s commitment to advancing women’s agenda socially, economically and politically whom he noted face huge challenges in accessing capital, business skills, technology and markets. He said their was need to create means of transforming informal businesses into formal ones if a strong and enduring enterprise culture has to be grown and developed.

Equity Bank is set to open three new branches in Nairobi to serve women only under a Sh5 billion programme with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) whose aim is to increase financial aid to women entrepreneurs over the next five years. The president described the new investment initiative between Equity Bank and UNDP as creative for empowering women to take control of their destiny as individuals and as communities in order to better their lives. The initiative, he added, will further increase participation of women in business and develop their capacities to compete in the global market.

The National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government, he said, was committed to ensuring that at least 30 percent of all new employment in public service institutions is reserved for women. “No one can down play the central role played by our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters in society. It is in recognition of this basic reality that I have continued to develop deliberate policies to ensure that women of Kenya attain their full measure as equal partners in nation building.” He added that his government had recently announced a two billion shilling Women’s Enterprise Development Fund, with an initial amount of 1 billion shillings that is to provide seed capital and basic enterprise support to women throughout the country.

Equity’s managing director, James Mwangi said the funds will be used for medium and long term lending to increase women’s capacity and to expand their businesses.

President Kibaki congratulated Mr. Mwangi for winning 2007 Global Vision Award in Microfinance alongside the Grameen Bank from Bangladesh during the just concluded G8 Vision Summit in Germany. The launch was attended by Hon. Amos Kimunya, Finance minister, Hon. Mukhisa Kituyi, Minister for Trade, Lands minister Hon. Kivutha Kibwana, Justice and Constitutional affairs minister Hon. Martha Karua, representatives from the UNDP Nairobi office amongst several dignitaries.