Kenya banks and UN agencies launch new financing facilities

Kenya is seeing new strategic financing initiatives aimed at bolstering its digital economy and agricultural infrastructure through partnerships with United Nations agencies.

Co-op Bank of Kenya and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) have launched a financing facility under the Digital Platforms Kenya (DigiKen) Programme. Supported by a USD 900,000 loan portfolio guarantee, the facility aims to provide up to USD 1.8 million in support for FinTech companies, e-commerce, digital credit providers, and digitally enabled MSMEs. The initiative seeks to address financing gaps that hinder growth and job creation within the country’s digital sector.

Separately, Absa Bank Kenya, UNCDF, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have entered a strategic portfolio guarantee arrangement to fund solar-powered cold storage solutions. This initiative targets Kenya’s estimated USD 2.1 billion cold storage deficit to reduce post-harvest losses in the horticulture, dairy, fisheries, and meat sectors. Absa Bank will provide financing between USD 500,000 and USD 2 million to aggregators and equipment suppliers to deploy these technologies to smallholder farmers.