Big win for Equity at the Prestigious IFC Global SME Finance Awards in Netherlands.
Equity has won the Global SME Finance Award in the Platinum Category
of SME Bank of the Year – Africa, at the Prestigious IFC Global SME Finance
Awards, held in the Netherlands.
International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the
World Bank Group, organized the award
and the SME Finance Forum and endorsed by the G20’s Global
Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI). The Global SME Finance Awards
celebrate the outstanding achievements of financial institutions and fintech
companies in delivering exceptional products and services to their SME clients.
This year’s award winners were selected from a competitive
pool of 144 applicants. A panel of independent judges chose the winners based
on their Reach, Uniqueness and Innovation, Effectiveness and Impact, and
Dynamism and Scalability.
The independent judges said, “Equity has demonstrated good
and sustainable profitability supported by ability to innovate products and
adapt to the market, strong digitization in terms of both automation of
turnaround time and products offered, resulting in clear benefits to customers
thus making Equity a market leader.”
While receiving the Award, Equity Bank Corporate Banking -
SME Associate Director Jeremy Kamau, said, “We are humbled to have received
this award. Our purpose is to offer integrated financial services that socially
and economically empower consumers, businesses, enterprises and communities.
Since Equity Bank started as a small business, we understand the hurdles MSMEs
and businesses face, including lack of access to capital and markets and lack
of business management knowledge and skills. As a Bank, we have championed MSME
banking through provision of professional, flexible and integrated banking
services.”
Equity Bank’s core business and service offerings are geared
toward MSMEs growth, with its current MSME loan book standing at 60% of the
total loan book of the bank and SME deposits contributing 21.5% to the total
bank deposits.
The bank has trained 45,725 entrepreneurs in partnership
with Norfund, International Labour Organisation, MasterCard Foundation and the
Lundin Foundation. For micro-entrepreneurs, Equity Group Foundation in
partnership with Mastercard Foundation launched the Financial Knowledge for
Africa (FiKA) programme in 2010 to deliver quality financial literacy training
and advisory services to women and youth throughout Kenya. Since its launch,
more than 1.8 million women and youth have been trained in financial literacy
and money management skills.
Speaking during the award ceremony, Matthew Gamser, CEO of
the SME Finance Forum said: “We hope the winners of the Global SME Finance
Awards will inspire SME financiers all over the world to learn from their good
practices. The Awards provide the winners an opportunity to showcase good
practices on the global stage and foster learning amongst their peers.”
Equity has since inception been at the fore front in supporting
and empowering Small and Medium Enterprises through financing and capacity
building such as financial literacy training for women and youth and
entrepreneurship training for SME customers. Equity recently became a member of
the SME Finance Forum, a global network managed by the IFC, aimed at promoting
the financial growth of SMEs.
Commenting on the award, Equity Group CEO and Managing
Director Dr. James Mwangi said it is an honour for the bank to be recognized on
a global level for its efforts in supporting the growth of SMEs.
“Our customer centric and ecosystem approach to
intermediation has given us an opportunity to target our customer’s horizontal
and vertical value chains,” he added, “The branch is evolving to an SME center
as majority of our customers move to more convenient self-service digital
channels.”
The bank has invested heavily in digital channels for MSMEs,
offering solutions such as EazzyBiz, a direct to bank platform that allows
MSMEs to make all their transactions online; EazzyNet, an e-banking solution;
and EazzyBanking App, a fully-fledged mobile banking app. The bank recently
digitized its treasury instruments to SME’s through EazzyFX, an electronic
platform for settling forex transactions
The SME Finance Forum works to expand access to finance for
small and medium businesses.
The Forum operates a global membership network that brings
together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance
institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of
SMEs.
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