Top tier lender Equity Bank has signed up to the Young Africa Works - Kenya, a public-private partnership between Kenya, Mastercard Foundation and the private sector.
The programme funded by Mastercard Foundation to the tune of Sh30 billion will transition 5 million Kenyan youth to dignified work by 2023.
Equity will deploy its banking infrastructure as well as the Equity Group Foundation platform to implement the program.
“Through the bank, we shall extend affordable loans to over 600,000 entrepreneurs while Equity Group Foundation will offer free digital literacy, financial and entrepreneurship training,’’ Equity Bank Group CEO James Mwangi said.
He added that strengthening the MSMEs will equip them with the right capacity and capabilities to bridge the corporate sector and narrow the gap between the formal and informal sectors in the country through linkages.
In the first 18 months of project implementation, Equity will extend loans of up to Sh150 billion to 140,000 MSMEs and scale to Sh420 billion to 600,000 MSMEs over a five year period.
Equity has had a long partnership with Mastercard Foundation in implementing successful social impact programs including Wings to Fly program and the Financial Knowledge for Africa program (FiKA).
