Markets & Finance

Women traders push for unique loan collateral

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Gulf African Bank on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi. Gulf African Bank has two women-only branches in Eastleigh, Nairobi and Mombasa and offers an express counter for women in most of their branches. PHOTO | FILE |

Women want financial institutions to relax lending conditions for their businesses especially because most lack tangible collateral.

Head of Women Banking at Gulf African Bank Najma Jabri said only about one per cent of women own property they can put as collateral.

Gulf African under the women-only package has taken alternatives to ensure more of them access funds for business, she said.

“Women can offer jewellery, their stock and even guarantors through their ‘chamas’ as a way of securing credit,” she said during the Women in Business Conference in Nairobi Thursday.

Managing director Gulf African Abdala Abdulkhalik said as signatories of the women empowerment principles, the bank had committed to champion women economic growth at social and professional levels.

Gulf African Bank has two women-only branches in Eastleigh, Nairobi and Mombasa and offers an express counter for women in most of their branches.

The bank estimates that 24 per cent of micro, small and medium Enterprises (MSME) are owned by women, putting the number of their businesses at 552,000 out of the 2.3 million in the country.

According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), 39 per cent of SMEs are owned by Kenyan women, meaning out of the 134,000 small enterprises in the country, 52,000 are women-owned.

The IFC has been working with the Islamic bank making its first Sh500 million ($5 million) investment in equity back in 2013.

The IFC is also involved in the Africa MSME finance programme, which advises financial institutions in 18 African countries on how to increase lending to the small enterprises.