Awards for Excellence 2016
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Reaching small and medium-sized enterprises and supporting them with advice and financing from inception through every stage of their development is a key part of banking in Africa. Due to its long commitment to Kenyan SMEs and to its innovative way of supporting them, Equity Bank is the worthy winner of our best bank for SMEs in Africa award. Over the past year, the bank managed to greatly expand its offering, both geographically and numerically.
Equity Bank’s lending to the SME sector increased by 35% in 2015 to KSh147 billion ($1.5 billion), and represented an impressive 55% of the bank’s loan book. Importantly, even as the bank increased its SME exposure, it further improved its portfolio quality by reducing the non-performing loan ratio from 4.3% in 2014 to 3.1% a year later. During 2015, Equity Bank added 47,000 SME customers to reach a total of 545,000, which it says makes it the bank with the largest SME customer base in east and central Africa.
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Equity Bank has also expanded geographically over the past year. The bank converted a further 20 branches into flagship SME centres to focus on both small and mid-sized clients. Out of a total of 174 branches in Kenya, Equity Bank has altogether allocated 70 branches to focus primarily on small businesses. During 2015, the bank also enhanced credit approval limits at its branches and decentralized credit decisions by establishing credit-risk screening and loan-approval teams in regional centres located at Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret. This has led to improved turnaround times for credit applications and disbursements.
In September 2015, Equity Bank further proved its commitment to SME lending by acquiring a purely SME bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That institution, ProCredit Bank, is the DRC’s leading bank in the SME sector and the country’s seventh largest bank by assets, with an SME customer base of over 170,000 spread across 23 branches.
