Equity Group’s role in the growth of MSMEs in the region

One thing the pandemic taught the world is that SMEs are an integral part of economic recovery and growth, hence the need to support and nurture them.

This is the reason 70% of Equity Group’s loans are directed towards the MSMEs. CEO Dr James Mwangi says the Group aims to be a wealth creation catalyst in Africa, and MSMEs are at the core of this plan.

Mwangi adds that there is a need for deglobalisation so that Africa can no longer depend on other continents, especially the West, for basic things like food and medication.

He says this is where MSMEs come in, and Equity Group is keen on financing them to achieve the target.

“We built a brand of empowering SMEs to develop Africa, the African Recovery and Resilience Plan, recover from Covid effects and global challenges, but then bring partners along,” Mwangi said on Citizen TV’s Power Talk.

He added that the Group, in partnership with other stakeholders, looks to bring all the African countries together to enlarge the market size for the African SMEs.

This is why Equity Group started trade missions such as the one to DRC where they worked with 300 SMEs within two weeks. 

Within two months of this mission, Equity Group had funded these SMEs with Ksh.240 billion for the opportunities they had unlocked in DRC.

“We want to integrate this region, create the local market but also link it to the international market. We’ve created the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Office in Eastern and Central so that we can link our SMEs with other SMEs in the Commonwealth countries,” Mwangi added.

For the SMEs to scale even higher, they need more than just financing. Mwangi says that one of the key areas the SMEs should focus on is capacity building.

This includes formalising their operations, such as appropriate governance structures. 

For example, he advises that as much as an SME is owned by a family, there should be a different management structure away from the family so that the capability that is not within the family comes through the management.

Also, Mwangi says SMEs need to embrace if they are to remain sustainable and scale their operations even higher.

Equity Group was honoured as the African SME financier of the year for the 2023 Global SME Finance Awards.

The Group has set aside Ksh700B for the African Recovery and Resilience Plan and has partnered with other financial institutions to actualise this.