Rwandan’s leading commercial bank, Bank of Kigali BK has launched three new products as part of a campaign to alleviate poverty.
These include ; Women Entrepreneurship Facility (Intambwe y’abanyarwandakazi), Youth Entrepreneurship Savings Account (YESA SINGIRA) and also Senior Loans and Savings Account (Ntugasaze).
In his remarks, Lawson Naibo, the Bank’s Chief Operating Officer, pointed out that the intambwe y’abanyarwandakazi product which targets women entrepreneurs, would facilitate them to access credit and financial advice.
“This will be done particularly to transform the lives of the women who earn less but with sensitive ideas that can contribute to the society,” Naibo said at the launch.
In a written statement, the bank’s Managing Director James Gatera said the product is intended to facilitate women entrepreneurs in the low end market and also to aptly fit the government’s policy and plan to ensure gender mainstreaming and full participation of women in all activities related to socio-economic development of the nation.
The Minister of Youth Sports and Culture (MIJESPOC), Protais Mitali who was the Chief Guest during the launch highly welcomed the projects and particularly emphasised on the Youth Entrepreneurship Savings Account.
“Am very happy about the product because youth will have the opportunity to access the credit without collaterals,” Mitari told IGIHE.COM. He added that since the youth has no security to present to the banks to access credit, the product would help them.
The Minister challenged the youth to visit the bank to obtain more information on the product so that they can get involved and ultimately become job creators instead of job seekers.
He also added that his ministry would seek for other possible means to support the unveiled products.
The three products unveiled by BK are all guarantee free. The bank would help to connect clients with one of two organisations to provide guarantees and the client would easily access the credit.
The two organizations are the French Agency for Development (AFD) which has branch offices based in Kenya and the Rwanda Development Bank (BRD).
The credit ranges from RWF 100,000 to RWF 5m depending on the project presented to the bank by a client.
The credit will be paid back in a period of six months to two years and beyond depending on the income of the borrower at an interest rate of 1.4 percent per month.
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