Co-op Bank Launches ELA a Tailored Banking Solution for Women

• Co-op Bank Launches ELA,a Tailored Banking Solution for Women
• New proposition unlocks unsecured working capital of up to KES 10 million, personal loans, a maternity repayment moratorium, and access to training and networking through the Co-op Bank branch network

Co-op Bank has introduced ELA, short for Everyday Life Amplified, a banking solution made specifically for women and built around the concept of Her Economy: the recognition that a woman’s financial life rarely sits in one lane, but moves continuously across business, career, family and personal ambition.

The proposition responds to a gap that is well documented in Kenya’s financial sector.Women account for 48 per cent of Kenya’s MSME borrowers, nearly matching men, yet hold just 26 per cent of the roughly KES 613 billion in outstanding MSME credit.

For every KES 1,000 extended to male-owned enterprises, women-owned businesses receive only KES 354, a gap the Kenya Bankers Association describes as structural rather than a reflection of business performance.

At a national level, the International Finance Corporation estimates that women in Kenya face a credit gap of USD 1.3 billion.The gap persists even as overall financial access has improved:mobile money has narrowed Kenya’s formal financial inclusion gender gap to just 1.6 per cent, yet only 46.5 per cent of women hold formal banking products such as loans and accounts, compared with 58.9 per cent of men

Reach and participation are no longer the barrier; access to capital on fair terms still is.

Speaking on the launch,Samuel Birech,Director,Retail and Business Banking at Co-op Bank, said:”For years, women have carried an outsized share of Kenya’s small business activity while receiving a fraction of the credit.That’s not a gap we can talk our way out of, it’s one we have to lend our way out of. 

We looked closely at those numbers before we built ELA, and they shaped almost every decision in this product, from how we price it to how we assess a loan application.

ELA is Co-op Bank putting real capital behind that commitment, and we intend to be judged by how quickly that capital reaches the women who need it.”

ELA gives women in business access to unsecured working capital of up to KES 10 million, repayable over 24 months, or up to KES 20 million on a secured basis over the same period.

Businesses that are wholly owned or majority-led by women qualify for a 0.5 per cent interest discount. Women in formal employment can apply for personal loans against their KYC documentation and three months’ payslips.

The product also carries a three-month repayment moratorium for customers on maternity leave, alongside business and financial training and networking access through Co-op Bank’s women banking network.

Rachael Murage,Head of Women Banking at Co-op Bank,added:“We didn’t want another product that asks a woman to fit her life around a loan application.

Walk into any branch, tell us what you’re building, whether that’s a business, a career move, or simply getting through a season of change, and we’ll show you where ELA fits.

That’s a different conversation than the one women are used to having with a bank, and it’s one our teams have been trained specifically to have. We’re not just extending credit, we’re making room for how women actually work.”

ELA is now available through the Co-op Bank branch network.Interested customers are encouraged to visit their nearest branch with the relevant documentation to find out more and join ELA.

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