Kenyan Businesswoman, Jennifer Riria, Receives Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year Award

The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award was given to Kenya Women Finance Trust CEO, Jennifer Riria.  The awards ceremony will be held in Monte Carlo, Monaco with other regional master category winners from more than 145 cities in more than 60 countries across the globe.

“I am very humbled to have been identified as an entrepreneur of the year. I am more humbled because it is micro finance and for the women of East Africa,” an excited Jennifer Riria, CEO, Kenya Women Holding  advised.  The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year award is considered the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs.

In 1991, Riria was hired to help revive the Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT).  Riria stated, “I took over KWFT when it was minus two million Kenyan shillings in uncollectable debt and now [the trust] has evolved into three aspects. Kenya Women’s Micro-finance Bank, Kenya Women’s Insurance and Kenya Women the Non-governmental organization that advocates for women.”

She then added, “Over the last 24 years we have reached to more than 2.3 million women and their families.  We have disbursed over 1.3 billion Kenyan shillings. We have products that address the concerns of women, that address survival.” The institution has helped fund business ventures run by women  including initiatives to improve health care, access to water and affordable clean energy.

Riria explained, “We take financing and products to the poor people in the villages. They do not come to us and what poor people need is not big money but it is access it and that is what micro finance has been able to do.”

Source: AFK Insider