Posted on March, 9, 2022 at 07:51 am
Equity Group has launched a private sector-focused stimulus package to accelerate economic recovery and resilience in the Eastern and Central Africa region as it recovers from the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Equity's Eastern and Central Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan is envisaged to provide financing of up to 2 per cent of the combined GDP of the six economies, in which the Group operates.
While launching the Recovery and Resilience Plan James Mwangi, Equity Group Managing Director and CEO said the Sh678 billion facility will be available to 5 million MSMEs and 25 million individual borrowers for the next 5 years.
"The plan conceives that the 5 million businesses largely comprising MSMEs will create 50 million jobs, 25 million jobs directly and an equal number of jobs indirectly as the ecosystems of business become more cohesive, connected, and ultimately synergize and grow," said Mwangi.
The recovery plan will have special focus on youth and women, supporting them to be the primary drivers of creating and expanding opportunities in the real economy.
Under the Young Africa Works Initiative in partnership and collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, the plan will build capacity in young people through financial literacy, entrepreneurship training, and digital literacy.
Under the primary sectors, principally Food and Agriculture, the focus will be on unlocking productivity gains and value addition ecosystems to achieve food security for the region while increasing value creation in the primary sectors, which are the highest employers, highest foreign exchange-earners and the highest contributors of export goods.
The plan targets agricultural transformation by enhancing value chain coordination, capacity building of smallholder farmers-anchoring them better to formal value chains, financing mechanisation, and credible inputs.
The recovery and resilience plan seeks to leverage productive capacities and comparative advantages to transform the region into a manufacturing hub that converts agricultural raw material into finished products for export and national use.
The plan covers value addition for all primary products including retaining value in mineral processing to export semi-finished and finished products.
It targets financing of in-country manufacturing and regional supply chains to replace broken global supply chains following Covid-19 disruptions.
This will build regional resilience against global supply chain shocks while contributing to economic recovery and growth of the region, creating employment opportunities for young people and markets for local producers.
Source: Capital FM