• Kenya
  • Resources
  • Capacity Building
  • Financial Literacy
  • Financial Literacy

Key highlights

According to the Global index report

  • women in the developing nations, such as Kenya, have a 20% less likelihood of owning a bank account in a formal financial institution.
  • 17% less likely to formally borrow money, deficiency in their financial literacy is one of the causes

Why Financial literacy?

Financial literacy is important to women entrepreneurs as it provides them with knowledge on:

  • valuing money;
  •  spending it;
  • keeping track on spending through updated records;
  • saving for the future and;
  •  investing in productive and sustainable activities.

                                                                                                Read more

What is the situation in Kenya?

Existing statistics show that lack of financial illiteracy among women:

  • Remains a major hindrance to their economic empowerment.
  • Makes it hard for women to navigate and use financial services, and
  • Leads to inappropriate financial decisions
  • Exposes women to added risk by borrowing from informal sources, saving too little, and failing to access appropriate financial services.

Various organization and institutions in Kenya have established financial literacy programmes for women entrepreneurs.

 

angle-left Swisscontact - Swiss Foundation for Technical Support

Swisscontact - Swiss Foundation for Technical Support

Institution

 

Swisscontact is an organization that implements international development projects. The organization promotes inclusive economic, social, and ecological development to make an effective contribution towards sustainable and widespread prosperity in developing and emerging economies.


It offers the chance to economically and socially disadvantaged people to improve their lives on their own initiative.

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Financial Literacy Programme

Inclusive Financial Programme

Through this programme, Swisscontact pushes the «banking frontier» further down the poverty line, increasing access to financial services for smallholder farmers and micro-entrepreneurs, thereby boosting their economic activities. These services include:-

  • Development of community savings and lending groups providing an entry point for financial literacy and access to financial products and services. Community members are organized into groups called Mavuno and provided with essential training and linkages to formal financial institutions.
  • Development of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)/Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs
  • Promotion of access to productive assets by supporting partners in capacity building to develop microleasing products and offer training to businesses to expand their activities, increase net incomes and create additional jobs.
  • Development of micro-finance skills by equipping staff with the appropriate knowledge and skills to develop suitable products and services for the financially excluded.
  • Innovating and testing new financial products and services. Swisscontact helps to develop and deploy innovative products and services to improve business efficiency and effectiveness, increase incomes and resilience and reduce costs: warehouse receipt system, micro-insurance, contract farming.

Read more;

Other initiatives beneficial to women

  • The Skills 4 Life Project-This project aims to strengthen the income-generating capabilities of youth aged between 16 and 25 years by enhancing their access to technical skills training, financial, life and literacy skills for improved livelihoods. It targets both members of the host community and refugees living in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement located in Turkana County in the North-Western region of Kenya.

Read More; 

Contacts

Swisscontact
Email; 
Website;