Invest In Africa (IIA), a Not-for-Profit SME focused entity, has rebranded its online platform—African Partner Pool (APP)—in a renewed effort to enhance its support for small players grow their businesses.
The platform will now be known as ‘Biashara.Now’, a boost for SMEs seeking to grow their businesses in Kenya.
This comes as the entity marks two years of its online platform which links Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with procurement opportunities available in the private sector across value chains, promoting local content and business sustainability.
READ:Invest in Africa push for increased business on the APP platform
In just two years, the organization has been able to register 2,250 MSMEs on its platform.
It has also recruited over 20 partners who have provided 67 tenders worth Ksh270 million (USD2.9 million) which have been won by MSMEs so far.
Additionally, over 200 MSMEs have been trained and over Ksh300 million (USD2.9 million) of financing unlocked through these partnerships, spearheaded by IIA-Kenya.
“It is our belief that the new identity will spur increased mutual value and engagements between buyers, partners and SMEs as we continue working towards IIA vision of prospering African economies,”IIA-Kenya Country Director Wangechi Muriuki said.
Leveraging on the technology platform – Biashara, IIA is enabling trade between small and large corporate, while enhancing skills, improving access to markets and financing of SMEs with partners.
The platform comes in handy as credit access continues to remain a challenge to large section of SMEs in Kenya, which has been caused by the capping of interest rates in the country since 2016.
The law which caps interest rates on commercial bank loans at four percentage points above the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), currently at 9%, has seen banks in the country prefer investing in government securities, rather than lending individuals whom they consider ‘high risk borrowers’.
Last year, Invest in Africa (IIA-Kenya) partnered with the African Management Initiative (AMI) , where they unveiled an online learning academy to help SMEs on its pool gain expertise to scale and grow their businesses.
READ:Boost for enterprises as Invest In Africa,AMI launch online SME academy
Through the partnership, SMEs are guided through key steps of developing their businesses, understanding market demand, their customers, cost-effective product; developing, testing and refining their business model and how to get funding for the business.
It also has an agreement with Educate Global, a Kenyan- based private equity asset manager focused on education, to support the growth of SMEs in Kenya.
READ ALSO:Invest In Africa, Educate Global partner to support Kenyan SMEs
The organization has received the backing of the government which is keen to have an inclusive economy which will support realization of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ‘Big Four Agenda’.
According to the government, MSMEs play a critical role in growth of the country’s economy, as they support industrialization and job creation.
Speaking during the unveiling of Biashara.Now., Kenya’s Trade and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said:“ We applaud the work done by the private sector in improving skills, markets and finance opportunities for SMEs. The government is fully committed to supporting SMEs thrive and that is why the president has also created an advisory unit because he believes that SMEs play a key role in the development of the economy by creating jobs and contributing a significant number in the country’s Gross Domestic Product.”
Recent studies indicate SMEs contribute to about 45 per cent of Kenya’s GDP and create employment to over 70 per cent of the country’s workforce. However, about 400,000 SMEs die each year for lack of business opportunities and capital to re-invest.
“IIA Kenya therefore aims to leverage on the new brand identity that speaks to the market to refocus on its path towards the vision of connecting Kenyan SMEs to contracts worth one billion shillings (USD9.9 million), and create 25,000 jobs by the year 2020,” Wangechi noted.
In the past one year, IIA has successfully linked SMEs to multi-nationals where they have secured supplying tenders. These includes Tullow Oil in Turkana and Base Titanium which is mining titanium ores in the coastal region of Kenya (Kwale County).
READ:Base Titanium, IIA partner to support local entrepreneurs
IIA partners with Equity Bank, Stanbic Bank, Ernst & Young,Clyde & Co, Ecobank, Safaricom, Shell, Nation Media Group, AMSCO, Strathmore Business School, Keninvest, Africa Management Initiative(AMI), Kenya Private Sector Alliance(Kepsa) and Tullow Oil among others.
The government is keen to support growth of SMEs in the country with a number of initiatives lined up.
Among them is an “SME Credit Guarantee Scheme” which President Kenyatta has promised will be launched soon, aimed at deepening their access to credit without being subjected to complex application procedures and collateral requirements.
“To unlock the latent potential resident in the sector, my administration has been working towards addressing the challenges of access to credit, training and skills development. These interventions are critical to production of competitive goods and services for the domestic, regional and globally markets,” Kenyatta said, during the recent ‘State of the Nation’ address.
