CBI launches New Initiative for Kenyan Women's Empowerment

• Centre for the Promotion of Imports launches New Initiative
• The initiative aims at Kenyan Women Empowerment

An initiative has been announced by the Centre for the Promotion of Imports (CBI). It is a programme that has been funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs while being in a collaboration with SBM Bank.

Founded in 1971, Centre for the Promotion of Imports caters in the Non-profit Organizations industry with specialities in Import Promotion, Market Intelligence, Export Coaching, Business Support Organisation development, and Export Promotion.

Moreover, the initiative aims towards women’s empowerment for seizing valuable opportunities in global trade. It shall put its focus on Kenyan women entrepreneurs in export value chains keeping the target to 15 businesses. Everything will happen during the initial six-month pilot phase while scaling up significantly in the following years. The alliance shall witness the series of activities’ launch which will focus on enhancing the access to finance for women, facilitating their entry as well as expansion in international markets.

This particular engagement is amongst one of the 3 pillars of Women’s Economic Empowerment project of CBI in Kenya that values at Euros 2 million (Sh283 million) over 5 years.

Furthermore, the CBI Programme Coordinator Janneke Vereijken stated that female entrepreneurs very often come across significant challenges specifically in accessing international markets and being delighted to make an alliance with SBM Bank in order to address these challenges.

Bhartesh Shah, the chief executive of SBM Bank stated, “We believe that empowering women is critical for sustainable economic development. Through this partnership with CBI, we are opening new doors for women entrepreneurs to participate in global trade.”