IIA Kenya impact story

Fast-tracking SME access to finance

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that 40 percent of SMEs in developing countries have an unmet financing need of $5.2 trillion. In Kenya, SMEs often fail to meet the lending criteria set by financial institutions. This SME financing gap translates into a critical lack of business growth opportunities, as was the case for Vokenel Limited.

Vokenel Limited is a Kenyan processing company based in Makueni County that focuses on baobab oil and baobab powder. Its goal is to promote the use of organic products for enhanced human health.

Initially Vokenel struggled with a lack of sufficient finance to scale up. “We did not have enough finance to source more raw materials or revamp our production. This meant that the business remained stagnant, and we could not explore available growth opportunities,” said Nelly Ngunguru, Managing Director.

Vokenel

As part of its membership offerings from Invest in Africa (IIA) – Kenya, Vokenel has access to training programmes in addition to connections and opportunities. The IIA Kenya programme for upscaling manufacturing SMEs helps enterprises to fast-track access.

The programme involves five modules:

• Access to finance
• Access to market
• Good manufacturing practices
• Transparency and traceability
• New product development

Under the ‘access to finance’ module, Vokenel developed a professional pitch deck to present to potential financiers.

According to Nelly, the training opened her eyes to the available funding options. “The opportunity to interact with a variety of financial institutions within the programme enabled me to learn about available opportunities and the requirements to fit the selection criteria,” says Nelly.

Vokenel has now twice successfully applied for finance, including a grant from Kenya Climate Innovation Center. “I am confident that the company can now acquire opportunities, considering its efforts to meet the requirements and the professional pitch deck that enabled us to present ourselves effectively,” she adds.

Vokenel is one of 40 enterprises from Kenya and Uganda that participated in the programme, which was implemented by IIA Kenya in partnership with GIZ Business Scouts for Development.