Stanbic Bank Kenya and the Stanbic Kenya Foundation have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the County Government of Mombasa that will see the bank support digital literacy, SMEs and cancer screening in Mombasa, in line with the bank’s purpose to drive Kenya’s growth.

In the spirit of the partnership the bank aims to catalyze inclusive social economic growth specifically for youth, women and SME’s and promote environmental and climate awareness as avenues to create sustainable businesses in Kenya.

The partnership also looks at addressing issues around the Blue Economy.

Empowering the community is an integral function of the Stanbic Kenya Foundation which sits under the Accelerate Program. The program’s main objective is to position Kenyan businesses for success. It addresses a significant skills gap in the country by boosting entrepreneurship and the employability of citizens through digital literacy and upskilling, career development, and providing funding (grants) and access to job markets.

Speaking on behalf of the County Government of Mombasa, H.E Hon. Deputy Governor, Dr. William Kingi commended the bank and the Stanbic Kenya Foundation for their continuous support in helping the government achieve its objective.

He said, “Our partnership will empower our youth and allow them to participate productively in the economy. This will indeed play a big role in eradicating youth unemployment and transforming them into entrepreneurs.”

In line with the banks purpose of driving Kenya’s economic growth, the Stanbic Kenya Foundation seeks to fast track and boost the growth of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country by providing access to resources and knowledge that will elevate businesses and individuals and empower them to achieve their dreams.

Many enterprises in the country are still struggling to recover from the effects of the global pandemic, and it is evident that having digital skills is key to survival.

Speaking during the MoU signing ceremony, the Chief Executive for Stanbic Bank Kenya, Charles Mudiwa said, “Since we launched the partnership with the Ministry of Industrialization and Trade and Enterprise Development and Microsoft, we continue to engage the counties in support of the SME’s, youth and women. To this end we have made great strides in rolling the ‘Future ni Digital’skills program that will see us train 1000 trainers and reach at least 500,000 Kenyans in the next 3 years."

Adding "We are honored to work closely with the County Government of Mombasa to help drive the county’s economic growth and are making deliberate efforts to grow and empower our people. As a bank we will continue to rally the private sector to partner and work with government to advance their development agenda. “

The Stanbic Kenya Foundation has already implemented different interventions to support MSMEs. These include capacity building through offering digital skills and entrepreneurial training programs as part of the banks Future Ni Digital campaign launched in partnership with the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development.

The initiative aims to build the capacity ofindividuals and business in digital skills and marks yet another significant milestone for the Foundation under its strategic pillars of Job creation, Enterprise Development and Education. The Foundation is working closely with government’s Biashara Training Centres to roll this out.

The Stanbic Kenya Foundation plans to distribute over 400 computers and laptops to facilitate the learning program which seeks to equip 50,000 MSE’s with digital skills by the end of the year 2021.

In addition to the MoU signing ceremony, the Stanbic Kenya Foundation carried out cancer screenings in partnership with Tunza Clinic in different parts of Mombasa including, Kongowea market, Likoni and Changamwe.

The Stanbic Foundation has initiated this exercise in Laikipia, Kericho, Nairobi and Nakuru.

Over and above the digital skills program, the Stanbic Kenya Foundation has made great strides in its contribution to strengthening the country’s healthcare system. On the healthcare front, the Foundation partnered with strategic private sector partners as a COVID-19 response, and successfully donated192 Ventilators worth Kshs.147 million to the Ministry of Health and were distributed countrywide including Mombasa County.

In addition, the Foundation had partnered with the Kenya Health Federation to address different issues related to health such as COVID-19 response and has rolled out a number of cancer screening initiatives, distributed PPEs and hand-washing stations to underserved populations.