They say give a man fish, and you feed him for a day.Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life time.In improved customer relations effort, one bank is pushing their public relations game bar higher than those in the game through a very beneficial project focused on its customers.
Cooperative Bank has launched Customer Networking Forums that will see the bank train its customers countrywide on strategies to grow their businesses in changing operating environments.
These forums are part of the Ksh15.2 billion programs that the bank, in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), launched in mid-2018 to provide affordable financing and business training to Kenyan MSMEs.
“In partnership with IFC, the Bank expended a lot of resources on customer engagements and research work to understand the dynamics of this critical business segment. We now know for a fact that MSMEs are the bedrock of wealth creation in Kenya as they account for over 90 percent of Kenya’s private sector, employing over 15 million Kenyans in both the 1.7 million registered and 7 million unregistered businesses,” commented the Director Retail & Business Banking at Cooperative Bank, Arthur Muchangi.
The Customer Networking Forums are a key part of Co-op Bank’s MSME program as it is widely acknowledged that MSMEs need the insights and training on economic matters that have a direct bearing on their business, and which they have little or no control over.
The forums will be held across the country, and feature a detailed presentation by the bank economist on the opportunities in and out of the country that MSMEs can tap and the ways the bank is working to enable customers to seize these opportunities.