Access to Finance

All businesses require working capital to operate, to grow and to compete successfully. Promoting access to finance for small and medium-size firms has been on the agenda of Kenya’s government.

All major commercial banks (Standard Chartered Bank, Equity Bank, Barclays Bank and Family Bank) have branches within Machakos County. Apart from the credit facilities offered by these banks and other financial institutions, some of the opportunities backed by the government and are accessible at the national level, include:

• The Women Enterprise Fund, established in August 2007, provides accessible and affordable credit to support women start and/or expand business for wealth and employment creation.
• The Uwezo Fund that enables women, youth and persons with disability to access finances to promote businesses and enterprises at the constituency level.
• The Youth Enterprise Development Fund which was established to reduce unemployment among the youth aged 18 to 35 years by strategically focusing on enterprise development as a key strategy tool that will increase economic opportunities for, and participation by Kenyan youth in nation building.
• The Machakos County Joint Loans Board Programme which is a loan facility where existing businesses operating in the County can apply for loans from as little as KES 50,000 (500 Dollars) up to a maximum of KES 300,000 (3,000 Dollars)