That Covid-19 has dealt a huge blow to just about every household in the country is not up for debate. The virus came, killed businesses, disrupted families’ ways of life and the ripple effect is that thousands of homes have been left without a source of income. The post Covid-19 recovery plans have to start without further delays so as the country continues to fight what is left of the pandemic, people and communities can start getting back on their feet.
And a lot of help is needed towards this. For instance, the Coca-Cola System in Kenya, in partnership with the County Government of Laikipia, Women Enterprise Fund (WEF), Absa, and Amref Health Africa in Kenya have today launched an initiative to support small and micro business outlets across the country to recover and reopen after the COVID-19 impact on the economy that saw most of them lose revenue and close.
The support is targetting 18,000 trade outlets across the country who will receive personal protective equipment including masks and faceshields, handwashing jerrycans, sanitizers, and garden furniture to enable them to enforce the required social distancing. They will also be provided with communication and awareness materials related to COVID-19 safety and precautions.
Under the initiative, the traders and their staff will also benefit from COVID-19 health and safety training provided by Amref Health, to help them adhere to business opening and operating guidelines as per government directives. Absa, the financial business partner will facilitate access to business loans to the traders that require working capital to revive their enterprises, including restocking.
While speaking at the event, Absa Regional Corporate Director for East Africa, James Agin, explained that under this partnership, the bank shall support affected businesses across the entire value chain with revolving short-term working capital financing to bridge any cashflow challenges between stock purchase and receipt of payment from their customers.
The initiative has partnered with the County Government of Laikipia’s Economic stimulus programme to provide trade finance to the county’s distributors and retailers.
Small traders and waste collectors across the country have experienced unprecedented losses occasioned by the effects of the Coronavirus that continues to spread across the world. These losses have subjected households and families, and our environment to numerous challenges.
“We will continue to prioritise initiatives that support our traders as they reopen for business and we are already rolling out some initial support that will be augmented by what we are officially launching today. The response from our trade partners has so far has been very positive, and we hope that in the coming months they will regain consumer confidence and record more business,” said Xavier Selga, Managing Director, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa – Kenya.