Kakamega County First Lady Janet Barasa, President’s Women Rights Advisor Harriette Chiggai, Absa Business Banking Director Elizabeth Wasunna, and Africa Guarantee Fund Head of Risk Joshua Obengele, during the the launch of a Women’s Economic Empowerment and Investment Curriculum.
Absa Bank Kenya, in partnership with the Executive Office of the President, through the offices of the Women’s Rights Advisor and Africa Guarantee Fund (AGF), has today launched a Women’s Economic Empowerment and Investment Curriculum dubbed the Empower Her County Program to empower at least 30,000 women-led micro, small, and medium-sized businesses across Kakamega, Bungoma, and Vihiga counties.
This program seeks to address gender-based disparities and overcome economic challenges women entrepreneurs face to advance entrepreneurship by providing them with the tools and resources needed to upskill their businesses, promote resilience, and thrive in today’s competitive business environment. In addition, the curriculum will offer the ‘Start and Improve Our Business (SIYB) module, one of the largest global business management training programs developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Addressing the business community at the launch event held at Masinde Muliro University, the President’s Women Rights Advisor, Hon. Harriette Chiggai, said, “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, and the main reason why His Excellency the President created the office of the Women’s Rights Advisor is to show his commitment to every Kenyan woman and girl.
The program includes training on business registration, taxation, marketing, savings and investment, budgeting and financial planning, bookkeeping, digitization of businesses, market linkages beyond counties, and cross-border training.
On her part, Absa Bank Business Banking Director Elizabeth Wasunna-Ochwa said
“Closing the gender gap through economic empowerment is key to achieving our Sustainable Development Goals as a nation. 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.”
According to a 2018 report by the International Labour Organization, nearly 60 percent of women’s employment globally is in the informal economy. In low-income countries, it is more than 90 percent. Women constitute over 60 percent of the 74 percent of Kenyans living in rural areas, where poverty levels remain high. The Women’s Empowerment Index 2020 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics implies that the empowerment rate of women in urban areas is 40 percent, nearly double the rate of empowered women in rural areas, at 22 percent over the same year, signifying the need for empowerment of women, especially at the county level.
This financial literacy program, which is set to be rolled out in all 47 counties, aims to increase economic participation and entrepreneurship among 70% of women and improve financial literacy and management skills for 90% of women, including increasing their knowledge and uptake of the available government and private sector funding.
