Empower Her County Initiative to Boost 30,000 Women Entrepreneurs in Western Kenya

By Jael Sada 

At least 30,000 women-led micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across Kakamega, Bungoma, and Vihiga counties will be the first to benefit from the Women's Economic Empowerment and Investment Curriculum alias Empower Her County Program. 

This financial literacy initiative, spearheaded by the Executive Office of the President through the Office of the Women's Rights Advisor in partnership with ABSA Bank and Africa Guarantee Fund (AGF), is a significant move towards empowering women-led enterprises across the country that face gender-based disparities and economic challenges.

Speaking at the launching event held at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Hon. Harriette Chiggai, the President's Women's Rights Advisor, revealed that the program will provide beneficiaries, especially from grassroots areas, with financial training, tools, and resources needed to upscale and thrive their businesses in today's competitive business environment. 

"Women entrepreneurs face many challenges that pose threats to their businesses.  The launch of the Empower Her County Programme is a demonstration of the need to support women-led MSMEs. This is why my office is partnering with private-sector entities to curate programs that can reach women at the grassroots with financial knowledge that can help them in managing their businesses," she said.

She further highlighted the government's dedication to creating a conducive environment for women entrepreneurs by promoting gender equality and economic inclusion through funding.  

"We are in support of the President's initiative to empower women by educating them on how to make their own money (pesa mfukoni) using the different projects and the business they own. Empowering women financially will help address most of the social problems we face as a country like poverty, teenage pregnancy and gender based violence," stated Chiggai.

"As a government, we have provided various funding platforms such as the Hustler Fund and Uwezo Fund among others, to offer capital that these women can use to expand their business. We are also working with the private partners that offer credit to ensure funding is not an issue," she added.

Elizabeth Wasunna, the Absa Business Banking Director, stressed the importance of financial literacy and access to capital for women entrepreneurs, noting that the organization will not only provide women with essential business skills but also loans accumulating to 10 billion Kenyan Shillings that the Africa Guarantee Fund will guarantee to a certain percentage.

"We have proposed to create awareness to women on how they can borrow loans from banks for business needs and repay with a minimal interest rate.  We encourage women to gather in groups and take loans to expand their small businesses to large scale enterprises. This will address the financial challenges that most business women face," she said.

In attendance was the Kakamega County First Lady H.E. Prof. Janet Kassily Barasa, who said that the county government of Kakamega, through her Office, has offered grants for women to expand their business territories.

"We have grants that are available for women to do merry-go-rounds and table banking. We have also supported them with different projects like chicken rearing and growing of indigenous vegetables for commercial use, hence empowering our women to be self employed and independent financially," she said.