NAIROBI, Kenya, April 29 – The government is set to reengineer two financial credit funds to facilitate access to credit for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) entrepreneurs in the country.
Speaking in Bomas during a public consultation meeting on credit guarantee policy and amendments to the CBK Act, the Ministry of Cooperatives and MSME Development cabinet secretary Simon Chelugui stated that the reengineering of the youth fund and uwezo fund will be pivotal in providing innovative financing to these entrepreneurs.
According to Chelugui, more than 7 million Kenyans in 2022 were blacklisted by financial institutions as credit-unworthy and could not access business credits.
Chelugui highlighted that the government has already launched a financial inclusion fund that could facilitate access to credit for entrepreneurs who could not access credit from commercial banks and other institutions.
“These interventions, which have been mostly government have not adequately met the financing gap for MSMEs,” he said.
“For this reason, the Ministry of Cooperatives and MSME Development in collaboration with the National Treasury has initiated an intervention that will provide a comprehensive risk-sharing framework to unlock private sector funding for MSMEs,” he added.
Furthermore, the CS pointed out that the government has developed a draft credit guarantee policy that he is optimistic will provide an ideal environment that will unlock private sector credit, making access to credit for MSMEs easier, and will in turn propel economic development.
