How banks can hack arid-based small businesses with products

Farmers producing Seed Maize in Weiwei, West Pokot County stack maize cobs in sacks ready for shelling at the Weiwei Seed Processing Plant. [File, Standard]

Mainstream financial institutions need to craft culturally sensitive products to penetrate small businesses in arid and semi-arid (Asal) populations, a public policy think tank has recommended.

These products, says the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra), should go hand in glove with education, which the State-backed agency notes is a determinant of whether a startup will use internal or external finance in its business.