Bank of Kigali launched SME Center to serve Small and Medium Enterprises.  

The SME Response Clinic spoke with Darius Mukunzi, Head of SME Banking at Bank of Kigali, about how the bank is currently serving small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Bank of Kigali is the largest commercial bank in Rwanda, serving more than 200,000 SMEs across the country. In July 2022, it launched the SME Center, a facility that provides tailored financial and advisory services to business owners looking to grow their enterprises.

To serve the segment, Bank of Kigali uses relationship managers and officers stationed at the SME Business Center and at each bank branch. These staff members are responsible for helping the bank to better understand SME customer needs, enabling Bank of Kigali to tweak products and services in line with those needs as they evolve in the market. Importantly, the Business and Credit departments within the SME Center work closely, which facilitates decision-making, thereby reducing the time it takes SME customers to obtain financial products from the bank.

Bank of Kigali also leverages government facilities to acquire new SME customers and provide loans to SMEs at favorable rates. The bank was involved in disbursing the government’s Renewable Energy Fund and is currently also participating in disbursing the Economic Recovery Fund (Hatana 2) and Export Growth Fund. Bank of Kigali is also working on a strategy to serve SMEs with non-financial services, planning to provide capacity building focused on topics like financial literacy for SMEs and taxation. The Non-financial services will also introduce Business Clubs and Supply Chain linkages in the near future.

Visit the Bank of Kigali’s SME Center in Kigali, CHIC Building, second floor, to learn more about the bank’s offer for the segment.