Jamii Bora Bank to finance 30% tenders for youth, women and people with disability

Following the announcement by the government to allocate 30% of all tenders to youth, women and persons with disabilities, Jamii Bora Bank together with the Ministry of Devolution and Planning will take up various collaborative initiatives to support this move.

During a meeting in the Ministry’s offices held yesterday, the Cabinet Secretary Ms. Anne Waiguru and the Chief Commercial Officer, Jamii Bora Bank Mr. Timothy Kabiru agreed on financing of women, youth and persons with disabilities for infrastructure and agri-business projects on a county and national level in line with the 30% affirmative action.

Further to this, the bank will also finance all organizations participating in the tenders under this program through issues of bid bonds, performance bonds, LPO financing and invoice discounting with favorable credit requirements. It was also agreed in the meeting that Jamii Bora Bank will re-finance all Uwezo Fund beneficiaries who demonstrate outstanding repayment records and strong management capabilities guaranteeing the beneficiaries a continuous source of funding after their businesses outgrow the Uwezo Fund.

The government is currently in the process of registering and pre-qualifying enterprises owned by youth, women and persons with disabilities under the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) programme. Special interest groups will stand a chance to benefit from over Sh300 billion of the Sh1 trillion allocated to public procurement in this year’s budget.

Even though the government has waived several requirements to encourage special interest groups to participate in procurement, including scrapping capital minimums and tender fees, the major challenge that youth, women and persons
with disabilities will face is the high capital required in the procurement of the tenders. Jamii Bora Bank, alongside other institutions such as Uwezo Fund and women enterprise funds, will offer various financial instruments such as LPO financing and invoice discounting to these enterprises.Additionally, the bank has partnered with ATIX, a business advisory company for

SMEs, to provide training on how to bid for government contracts as well as assist in company/business name registration, registration with treasuries at both county and national level, completion of tender documents as well as follow ups on the procurement process of tenders.

Some of the contracts up for award are the supply and delivery of flowers, provision of cleaning services, photocopy and videography, and supply and delivery of mobile airtime.