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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2025
The Equity Bank has identified structural barriers as a major hindrance to the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Uganda’s West Nile Sub-region.
To eliminate those barriers and unlock the potential of the SME’s the bank is emphasizing record keeping and planning so as to enable the local businesses to access the banking services tailored to them.
Robert Wanok, the head of retail baking in Arua branch pointed out that whereas the Equity bank is able to lend up to sh6 billion without collateral to especially multi-purpose savings and credit cooperative organistions (SACCOS), the poor records keeping and lack of proper planning has hampered many SMEs from getting capital financing.
“It is in the discipline of accurate records of incomes and payments that is to be able to identify as an agricultural SME, an Education value chain, health value chain, a religious SACCO etc,” he emphasized.
Wanok told the proprietors of SMEs to attach themselves with main off-takers and keep evidence of memoranda of understanding which will help ascertain the quality and genuineness of their operations.
The lending without emphasis to security is also meant to overcome the barriers presented by the land ownership is the region that is predominantly communal.
Wanok was speaking to business leaders at the Heritage Courts hotel during what they called Tupange business forum on Thursday, an event that was graced by a big delegation of bank officials from the Kampala.
Tupange is Kiswahili for lets plan and it’s a concept adopted to ensure that Equity Bank brings its clients at the core of its operations.
The aim is to strengthen the implementation of the banks’ strategic plans born out of the African Recovery and Resilience, the grand post-pandemic recovery plan for commercial banks following COVID19.
Equity bank, headquartered in Nairobi is one of the banks whose operations have covered most of the East African Community mainly, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and another outlet in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Bank officials say they want to cover at least 9000000 customers by 2030 of which 610000 should be SME’s because they have the potential to drive micro-economic development through indirect job creation, value addition to raw materials and increased local consumption.
The food and agriculture sector which is the backbone of the EAC economies is the main target but the mining and extractives sector which is coming up as a key player in economies such as that of Uganda is also attracting focus.
Other sectors under the banks radar are the manufacturing and logistics value chain, trade and investment, technology (digitization) and the social and environmental transfers targeting for instance the large refugee population in West Nile.
Wanok highlighted the partnership between Equity Bank and organisations such as the Lutheran World Federation, the UNHCR and South Sudan Refugees Association as a critical element in driving the social agenda of the bank.
Under this arrangement, the bank issues cards to refugee entrepreneurs so that they are able to access loans from the bank to facilitate their business enterprises.
The bank also assists with financial literacy, mobile banking and online record keeping to ensure safety of clients’ records.
In responding to the presentation from the bank official, Trinity Caesar Draecabo, the former president of the Arua city development forum, acknowledged that financial literacy needs are real but added that the presence of many commercial banks in Arua is testament that the region is growing.
“We have skills gap to match the demand in factories and those we are calling for. The entrepreneurship is done for survival rather than as a career. These need to change, otherwise Arua is a place where you cannot go wrong if you come with the right mind,” he said.
The Madi and West Nile diocese of the Church of Uganda was recognized as and SME business influencer and also as an enable of the SME business ecosystem development in the region.
