SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY HON. MWAI KIBAKI, C.G.H., M.P., PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE LAUNCH OF THE NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR THE PROMOTION OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS AND INVESTMENT IN KENYA AT KENYATTA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE ON 25TH JUNE, 2007

Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to be with you on this occasion of the launch of the National Strategy for Promotion of Women in Business and Investment in Kenya. This is an important initiative aimed at increasing the participation of women in business and to develop their capabilities to compete in the global market.

May I, at the outset take the opportunity to welcome all the visitors to Kenya. I would like to encourage you to set aside time to tour Nairobi and the outlying areas and enjoy the generous hospitality of our people. Indeed, Nairobi is a unique capital city that has a national park only ten minutes away from its central business district. I encourage you to visit this park, and enjoy its rich wildlife in their natural habitat.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
When I took office in December 2002, I outlined my vision to empower Kenyans in order to make this nation productive once again. I identified the need to develop, nurture, and celebrate an enterprise culture in our nation that embraces all sectors of our society, in particular women and the youth. However, the majority of women and youth operate informal businesses, which face huge challenges in accessing capital, business skills, technology, and markets. There is therefore need to create the means of transforming informal businesses into formal ones, if we are to develop and grow a strong and enduring enterprise culture in Kenya. Moreover, we are all aware that women constitute more than half of our population.

Accordingly, development initiatives which exclude women from full participation in economic and business activities will not take us far. After all, we all know that a bird cannot fly with a single wing. Similarly, for our society to reach new heights of equitable and sustained development, we must fully harness the ingenuity and energies of both our men and women in social and economic development. It therefore gives me great pleasure to be here today, to launch a creative new investment initiative between Equity Bank and UNDP for empowering women to their full potential as equal partners in nation building.

Ladies and gentlemen,
In the last five years, this nation has witnessed an explosion of creative energy by Kenyans from all walks of life, young and old, male and female. This is because we have created the space and opportunities that now make it possible for most Kenyans, especially women, to take control of their destiny as individuals, and as communities, in order to better their lives.

As your President, I am keenly aware of the great strength and depth of commitment of our women to God, family, community, and to our beloved country. We all know that the Kenyan, and indeed, African women are the driving force of community development in Africa. No one can downplay the central role played by our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters in society. It is in recognition of this basic reality that I have continued to develop deliberate policies to ensure that the women of Kenya attain their full measure as equal partners in nation building.

We have made the first step, by ensuring that at least 30 percent of all new employment in public service institutions is reserved for women. Our objective is to progressively raise this to half of all positions in line with the various protocols signed and ratified by my Government. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Vienna Declaration, and The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Furthermore, participation of women in the formal business sector remains unacceptably low. There is need to develop aggressive and creative forms of support to women to progressively enable them attain the status of equal partners with men in the formal business sector.

Women in informal sector enterprises have shown that they are creative, thrifty, and capable of running viable businesses. However, they face limitations in transforming these informal enterprises into strong formal businesses. This is largely because of lack of access to capital, collateral, and other supportive services.

The creation of a 5 Billion Shilling Investment fund by Equity Bank dedicated solely for women and the business skills training support that will be provided by the UNDP are a timely addition to on-going women empowerment efforts. This newly created fund will support the growing number of hard-working and successful businesswomen. These can now grow and become national, regional and international players who are proudly Kenyan.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
There are also many women in our urban and rural areas running small informal businesses that also require basic financial and management support to enable them grow into successful and viable enterprises. My Government recently announced a two billion shilling Women's Enterprise Development Fund, with an initial amount of 1 billion shillings that will provide seed capital and basic enterprise support to these women throughout the country.

The initiatives by Equity Bank and those by my Government are complementary to one another, and support different levels of business development among our women. They have also come at a time when my Government has enacted the Microfinance Act, in recognition of the fundamental role of microfinance services in mobilising funds for investment in small businesses.

I am glad that we are now beginning to comprehensively address the full participation of women in business, from the smallest to the largest enterprises. Let me advise you as women in business that a culture of savings and accumulation of the returns that one earns is essential to success in business. I therefore urge you to adopt thrift and prudent spending as your guiding business principles. I also encourage you to open bank accounts, which are an essential financial management and planning tool in modern business.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
As I conclude, I wish to commend the founders of Equity Bank for developing a banking model that empowers Kenyans irrespective of their social and economic status. Indeed, the focus on according your customers respect and dignity has enabled Kenyans to open over 1.3 million accounts with your bank, which is equivalent to 36 percent of all bank accounts in the country.

I note that recently, the bank was listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. This will enable other Kenyans to invest in Equity Bank and share in its success. Indeed, the banking model that has been developed by Equity Bank has won global recognition due to its impact on the ordinary citizens.

I want to congratulate Mr. James Mwangi, Managing Director of Equity Bank for winning 2007 Global Vision Award in Microfinance alongside the Grameen Bank from Bangladesh during the just concluded G8 Vision Summit in Germany.

This is the first time an African banking institution has received international recognition for initiating a concept capable of shaping the world economy. This award affirms that as Africans, we are capable of finding our own solutions to the development challenges we face. Indeed, it is these successes that enabled the United Nations to identify and appoint Mr. Mwangi as a UN Advisor on Inclusive Financial Systems.

I also want to appreciate the role played by our development partners in this initiative, including the UNDP, ILO as well as UNIDO. Additionally, I wish to thank all the ladies present today for embracing this new financing opportunity and turning out in great numbers to take advantage of it. I salute you all for passionately working to bequeath a better country to our children.

With these remarks, it is my pleasure to launch the National Strategy for Promotion of Women in Business and Investment in Kenya, and the Women Pearl Club by Equity Bank.

Thank You and God Bless You All.