WASHINGTON DC – World Bank Group member, the International Finance Corporation has given a loan of $100 million to Kenya-based Equity Bank. There are various branches of Equity bank in six countries which are popular for providing microfinance as well as other financial services to meet the needs of various entities. Not only this, advisory support will be provided to Kenya-based Equity Bank in order to give the subordinated loan. All these IFC-funded loans would vary from USD 10,000 to USD 2 million.
The international finance corporation provides loans to Equity banks its lending services to medium and small-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Also, the other motives are the enhancing of their regulatory capital as well as to ensure the financing of renewable energy projects. Only those firms would receive these benefits which satisfy certain criteria. According to the conditions, they must provide employment to a number of people ranging from 10 to 300. Also, they should have annual sales amounting between USD 1 million to USD 15 million.
Kenya based Equity Bank was founded in 1984 and is situated in Nairobi. Since its inception, it has done operations in Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. During its service time, it has expanded to 177 offices with 480,000 borrowers and 10 million depositors. Currently, it has accumulated total assets of USD 4 billion. With the financing of a loan from IFC, it will be helpful for the subsidiary of the Equity Bank to spread prosperity by ensuring sustainable development in various regions nearby Kenya. Also, overall banking services have increased all over the globe and one of the examples is ugo.lt which provides loans at an affordable rates.
IFC is one of the entities of the World Bank Group which is a multilateral organization with the motive to eradicate poverty and spread prosperity through sustainable development. It works with the help of private companies to alleviate poverty as well as to promote openness in the markets of developing countries. Some of the services which IFC offers to private companies to eradicate poverty are loans, advisory and technical services, equity investments.
