ABSA Bank Kenya has entered into a partnership with The Executive Office of the President, through the office of the Women’s Rights Advisor and Africa Guarantee Fund (AGF) to launch a Women’s Economic Empowerment and Investment Curriculum named ‘Empower Her County Program’ to educate 30,000women entrepreneurs across Kakamega, Bungoma, and Vihiga counties.
ABSA Bank has set aside Sh10 billion to support women entrepreneurs across the country. According to the bank’s management, the curriculum of the course will offer the ‘Start and Improve our Business (SIYB) module’ which was developed by was developed by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The President’s Women Rights Advisor Harriette Chiggai said, ““My office is partnering with private-sector entities to start up programs that can reach women at the grassroots, and the main reason why President William Ruto created the office of the Women’s Rights Advisor to show his commitment towards every Kenyan woman and girl.”
Absa Bank Business Banking Director Elizabeth Wasunna- Ochwa said, “When more women are empowered to create wealth, economies grow. This program resonates with our corporate purpose to empower Africa’s tomorrow together, one story at a time, and is in line with our commitment to empowering over one million women entrepreneurs by 2025 by providing them with access to market information, markets for their products and services, coaching and mentorship, and business networks, as well as providing the capital required to scale their businesses to the next level.”
“Women constitute over 60 per cent of the 74 per cent of Kenyans living in rural areas, where poverty levels remain high. Women’s Empowerment Index 2020 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics implies that the empowerment rate of women in urban areas is 40 per cent, nearly double the rate of empowered women in rural areas, at 22 per cent over the same year, signifying the need for empowerment of women, especially at the county level,” noted Wasunna- Ochwa.