SMEP Microfinance Bank Limited is a public limited company incorporate under the companies Act (Cap 486) and licensed under the Microfinance Act (Cap 493D) regulated by the

Central Bank of Kenya The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) ( sw, Banki Kuu ya Kenya) is the monetary authority of Kenya. Its head office is located in Nairobi. CBK was founded by in 1966 after the dissolution of East African Currency Board (EACB). Dr. Patrick Ngugi Njoroge ...

to offer banking services focusing on Group banking, SME & Church banking. SMEP has a subsidiary company, SMEP Insurance Agency, which provides insurance services to diverse customer insurance needs

Overview

SMEP offers retail banking and asset finance to individuals, groups, corporations and churches. The term SMEP is derived from "Small and Micro Enterprise Programme". SMEP had 19 banking branches, supported by 11 marketing units and over 40 SMEP Agents around Kenya.

History

SMEP Mircofinance Bank started out in 1975 as a relief arm of the

National Council of Churches of Kenya The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), (in Swahili, ''Baraza kuu la makanisa nchini Kenya'') is a fellowship of Protestant churches and Christian organisations registered in Kenya. It is currently Chaired by the Africa Brotherhood Church ...

(NCCK). This program's objective was to feed the poor people in Nairobi's

Mathare Mathare is a collection of slums in Nairobi with a population of approximately 500,000 people; the population of Mathare Valley alone, the oldest of the slums that make up Mathare, is 180,000 people. Mathare is the home of football teams Mathar ...

slum. Later on, NCCK realized that the poor needed to be self-reliant and economically empower and thus converted the feeding program into a

micro-credit :''This article is specific to small loans, often provided in a pooled manner. For direct payments to individuals for specific projects, see Micropatronage. For financial services to the poor, see Microfinance. For small payments, see Micropaym ...

scheme known as Small Scale Business Enterprise (SSBE). In 1998 the Small Scale Business Enterprise (SSBE) was renamed Small and Micro Enterprise Programme and in 1999 it was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee. In 2008, Small and Micro Enterprise Programme adopted its acronym "SMEP" as its official name and was registered as a company limited by shares. SMEP partnered with

Kiva A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and undergroun ...

in 2009 and has seen them been able to extend credit on behalf of other Kiva lenders. On 14 December 2010, SMEP was awarded a deposit taking licence by the Central Bank of Kenya. Making it the third deposit taking microfinance institution (MFI) in Kenya. The firm's name was then changed to SMEP DTM i.e. SMEP Deposit Taking Microfinance. SMEP DTM sought to raise capital through private placement in the last quarter of 2012. The share offer was valued at KSH 1.6 billion. This share offer only manage to receive 16.7 per cent subscription making it an unsuccessful offer. The firm adopted the name SMEP Microfinance Bank in 2013 in line with the Microfinance Amendment Act of 2013. The firm entered the insurance business in 2015 with the launch of its subsidiary, the SMEP Insurance Agency company.

Ownership

The shareholding in SMEP Mircofinance Bank is summarized in the table below:

Note: Small and Micro Enterprise Programme is a company limited by guarantee and wholly owed by the NCCK.

Governance

SMEP Mircofinance Bank is governed by a six-person board of directors. Nelson Kuria is the chairman of the board, and Symon Kamore serves as the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

, although he is not a member of the board of directors.

References

External links