An East African-based business advisory and investment firm Inkomoko has announced its strategy to work with 500,000 Medium and Small Micro-Enterprises in Kenya by 2030.
Under the new strategy, the firm also targets to invest $400 million to support MSMEs across eight countries in the region by 2030.
This is part of a series of events marking the 10th anniversary of the company and a rebranding to a new corporate identity.
Inkomoko has been working in Kenya since 2019 under the name African Entrepreneur Collective Kenya.
The word Inkomoko is a Kinyarwanda word meaning 'origin', recognising Rwanda as the place where the company started.
Addressing the media in a Mombasa hotel, the company's CEO Julienne Oyler said that this was part of the 10th anniversary celebration that started last week in Rwanda.
She said that senior leadership from the firm will visit all Inkomoko locations across Kenya to thank partners and clients for their support over the years and commit to doing even more work together well into the future.
“We are very proud that so many entrepreneurs have allowed us to walk with them in their journey,” she said.
“With this new and ambitious strategy, as well as unifying all of our markets under one brand, we will do even more to support micro and small businesses to grow and create jobs for others in their communities.”
She said that over the last 10 years, the firm has served more than 41,000 entrepreneurs in Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
Oyler said that Inkomoko currently works in five cities in Kenya, including Mombasa, Garissa, the Kakuma refugee camp and Kalobeyei integrated settlement and the Dadaab refugee complex.
Nairobi, she said, hosts the firm’s Kenya headquarters and provides support to their field offices, which she added works with nearly 7,000 entrepreneurs in 2022.
She said they have plans to open more offices by the end of the year.
“By engaging in secondary cities and refugee settings, Inkomoko will deploy more investments, more digital services and market-linkages strategies that will connect entrepreneurs to one another nationally and across geographies in the region,” she said.
Founded in 2012 by social entrepreneurs Oyler and Sara Leedom, the firm was originally called African Entrepreneur Collective.
Today, the company has 18 offices across Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Oyler said that the significant of the name change was to unify the organisation across their different markets as they had been operating under different names in Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia.
“Entrepreneurs in East Africa see themselves working in one large market so uniting the organisation under one brand helps to show them that they are partners and connect from one market to the other,” she said.
“Referencing the 'origin' in our name is also recognition that many of our services are the beginning of sustainable business growth for our clients,” she said.
The company's Kenya advisory board chairperson Florence Gatome said that by becoming Inkomoko, it has a fresh new look and a deeper connection towards its ambitious 2030 vision.
“We support micro and small enterprises across East Africa so that they can grow to create jobs, improve livelihoods and create thriving communities,” Gatome said.
“We would have invested 110,000 additional investments and the goal is to improve the lives and livelihoods of 7.6 million people.”
(edited by Amol Awuor)
