Awards for Excellence During Covid-19, providing support to more vulnerable sections of society has been more important than ever . Whether it’s distributing sanitary equipment or providing retailer vouchers through digital means, Kenya Commercial Bank ’s KCB Foundation has stepped up to that challenge. This help, moreover, has come on the back of older initiatives that the foundation has developed over time.
Established in 2007, and now led by chairman Austen Baraza, KCB Foundation has deployed about KSh30 billion ($278 million) in community programmes across the countries in which the bank operates – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan.
One of the foundation’s most successful initiatives is 2jiajiri, which provides technical training to young people and micro-SMEs, especially in agriculture and construction, sectors for which it also provides discounted asset and capital finance for things like greenhouses. Thanks to its track record, this initiative has received KSh12.5 billion ($115.9 million) in funding from the Mastercard Foundation, with the aim to create over a million jobs through the programme over the next five years.