Kenya; Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Kenya Limited intends to increase its lending to the manufacturing sector, especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
This comes as other players in the industry target households and agricultural sector and retail customers.
“We are already developing products such as supply chain and accounts receivable financing to ride on the back of this strategy. Our SME backing proposition is also being rebranded to commercial banking,” said Lamin Manjang, SCB Kenya Chief Executive has said.
He made the remarks during the release of a report on an independent study on the social and economic impact of UK-based Standard Chartered Bank Plc in Africa, looking at the value added to the economy and how it supports trade and employment.
Also present was Dr René Kim, one of the authors of the report titled “Banking on Africa Standard Chartered’s Social and Economic impact.” Available statistics indicate that SCB Kenya contributes Sh174billion ($2 billion) of value to the economy, equivalent to 5.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
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Lending activities
It has also contributed to creation of 323,000 jobs as a result of its lending activities in Kenya, representing 2.9 per cent of Kenya’s labour force.
Kim while the manufacturing sector takes a third of the Standard Chartered Bank Kenya lending pie there are still weak linkages between manufacturing and agriculture.
He, however, noted that while SCB (K) has laid down plans to increase lending to the SME segment, the sector is still held back by many factors.
“Although lending to this sector has increased, it is still unbankable with many lacking skills in management and basic accounting.
This is why the bank has intervened with supply chain financing to tackle these bottlenecks,” said Kim.
