East African entrepreneurs get €95 million shot in arm from EIB

EIB Vice- President Pim van Ballekom, responsible for operations in East Africa, said EIB signed a EUR 75million credit line with Equity Bank, under which funds are earmarked for three subsidiaries where EUR 36million will be for Equity Tanzania, EUR 20 million for Procredit DRC and EUR 19 million will be made available through Equity Uganda.

He said the EIB is committed to supporting banks in providing credit to the young and growing population in the region and as a bank they were eager to support a young and growing population with enormous potential.

He went on that the on-lending will be available in USD or local currencies with the objective of contributing to job creation and poverty reduction and in addition, Equity Group will benefit from a EUR 2 million technical assistance programme funded by the EIB to support its strategy of transforming branches into SME business centres.

Equity Group Managing Director & CEO Dr James Mwangi said with the EIB support they would be in a position to support up to 1,000 regional companies with loans thus assisting develop local entrepreneurs to compete at regional level furthering integration and cross border trade. Next to this, a EUR 20 million credit line under the EIB’s East and Central Africa Private Enterprise Finance facility was signed with HFC Limited.

This credit line will support HFC in providing the much needed longer term financing to private enterprises and commercially operated public sector entities in productive sectors in Kenya, in line with EU and national development priorities. In addition, HFC will benefit from EIB funded technical assistance program aimed at strengthening capacity in line with its strategy. “

I am proud to note that the success of the initial funding by EIB, has now brought more opportunities and we are happy to be recipients of another 20 million Euros, which is undoubtedly, an endorsement of the impact HFC is having on the SME sector.

This new funding will be channeled towards financing the working capital and expansion of our growing SME customer base.” said Sam Waweru, HFC Managing Director. Since September 2014, the credit lines in the region are supported by a EUR 5million technical assistance (TA) programme to support financial intermediaries and SMEs over a 3 year period.

The programme will be extended for a further 3 years from April 2017 for an additional EUR 4.7 million and is coordinated out of Nairobi, with a permanent presence of consultants in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

In the last seven years, the EIB has provided EUR 321 million in credit lines for Kenyan businesses, which have benefitted nearly 800 Kenyan companies, creating over 9,000 new jobs in agriculture, education, transport, tourism, trade and other sectors.

SOURCE: DAILY NEWS

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