INVEST IN AFRICA (IIA), INTERNATIONAL COACHING FEDERATION (ICF) KENYA CHAPTER ENTER INTO A PARTNERSHIP TO ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMES IN KENYA

Invest in Africa (IIA) entered a partnership with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) – Kenya Chapter, to accelerate the development and resilience of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya. The partnership aims at supporting the growth of SMEs by implementing targeted capacity building programs to address current skills gaps to increase their chances of business survival and resilience.

Leveraging on the IIA’s technological resource, Biashara.Now, and fund raising, the two organizations will share synergies towards achieving the partnership objective and bring more SMEs onboard to access the capacity building opportunities. As such, this partnership marks a new horizon by opening new avenues for cooperation and collaboration in supporting SMEs at a time when they have taken a hard hit from the Covid-19 pandemic.

IIA’s goal is to support African SMEs to win $1bn worth of contracts and create 250,000 jobs by 2025, and the partnership with ICF will strengthen the efforts to address the business capacity constraints that hinder SMEs from accessing new opportunities and markets, as well mitigate the business pressures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

IIA strives to create an empowering environment for SMEs through capacity building and enterprise development to reduce the potential impediment and fall of the startups as a result of economic and industry pitfalls. This is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, with emphasis on SGD 1, to reduce poverty, through job creation, and prospering the economy.

Commenting on the signing of the partnership, Wangechi Muriuki, the Country Director Invest in Africa-Kenya, said that IIA will leverage the partnership with ICF to further embed coaching as an intervention in driving the development of SMEs to ensure they can utilize opportunities available across values chains, as well as fully partake in economic development.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Dr. Martin Oduor-Otieno, The President of ICF Kenya Chapter said, “Through this partnership with IIA, we will extend coaching capacity to the enterprises within the Invest in Africa network so that they can gain enough clarity in their business endeavors”