Tackling rural poverty, together

Extract

Equity Bank was transformed from a building society to a commercial bank with support from DFID's challenge fund, enabling it to offer a broader range of services—including mobile banks—to a larger group of clients. By the end of project implementation, the mobile service had reached 30 village centres and served 23,055 new customers, 45% of whom were women. The innovation has helped smooth consumption for rural families by providing finance for school fees and emergency loans. Introduction of new software will facilitate transmittal of remittances from abroad and from urban to rural areas.