Stanbic Bank has launched a product for women dubbed D.A.D.A. that will provide essential financial and non-financial services that Kenyan women need to grow. This is with the the aim of reducing the financial inclusion gender gap in Kenya.
“DADA”, which is an acronym for ‘Dare to Aspire Dare to Achieve’ is tailored to help women develop financially from a personal and business perspective. This is in turn will help secure their families, impact communities and grow the economy. This comes at a time when Kenya has committed to halving the financial inclusion gender gap by 2021 after signing the Denarau Action Plan initiated by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI). Currently, the gender gap stands at nine percentage points in the developing world representing over 1 billion women who are still excluded in access to financial services.
DADA will address women’s need to save, borrow, invest and protect. It will give women access to education, information, networking opportunities and wellness. In addition to this, a kitty of Ksh. 20 Billion has been set aside by Stanbic Bank to specifically lend to SMEs in Kenya between now and 2020.
Charles Mudiwa, Stanbic Bank Chief Executive, had this to say, “We have committed to go out of our way to arm Kenyan women, especially women in business, with the tools they need to participate more fully in the financial system. With the KES 20 billion kitty, we shall target women with viable business plans in enterprises of all sizes operating in the formal and informal sectors.”