Equity Regional Manager in charge of North Eastern, Said Maalim Hassan (left), and Branch Manager, Fredrick Gichuku (right), with the Director of Mina Wholesalers, Shamsa Garad Siyad (middle) at her shop in Eastleigh.
By Evans Ongwae
Enterprising siblings Shamsa Garad, Ayan Adan and Sharmale Garad run Mina Wholesalers on Eastleigh estate’s 14th Street. Equity, their bank, is located a mere
stone-throw away on Second Avenue, but they rarely visit it.Yet, their business goes on uninterrupted, and they bank with that very branch – daily.
Moreover, as Shamsa says, they regularly receive rice, sugar and oil from their suppliers in Mombasa, without having to physically travel there to pay for the supplies as they used to do in the past.
Precisely on the same Eastleigh street, just a few metres away, Sakina Wholesalers Limited operates a similar business. Abdi Hassan Guleid, the firm’s director, too, banks with the Equity Eastleigh branch. He, too, makes only occasional visits to the bank. However, he carries out a variety of banking activities through his Equity account.
Mr Guleid says he uses a variety of Equity financial services. “I make cash deposits and payments,” he explains, citing services such as transfers, cheques, internet banking, Eazzy Biz, real-time gross settlement (RTGS), SWIFT and ATMs.
On her part, Ms Shamsa explains that ever since they opened shop in 2015, they bank from their office within the wholesale premises or the nearest Equity agent.
The owners of these two wholesale enterprises are among the many business people who rely on Equity’s digital payment solutions. They pay their suppliers digitally.
Such activities are common in Eastleigh business district, a lively thoroughfare that bustles with social and economic activities.
Residents jostle in its streets with visitors who shop at the region’s famed cloth, textile and electronics stalls. Daily, buses ferry people to and from all over Kenya. Meanwhile, Eastleigh’s many hotels receive both locals and visitors alike, offering their famous hospitality.
Mr Said M. Hassan, Equity’s Regional Manager for Northern Kenya, reckons that the business district is yet to realise its full potential. He is based at the Eastleigh branch, and says the bank’s role is to enable people to prosper.
The best, he says, is yet to come as Equity implements additional initiatives to support the business community transform Eastleigh and Northern Kenya, the latter being a region with massive potential.
Mr Hassan describes the Northern Kenya as where the future of the country lies because of its “vast opportunities and endless possibilities”.
“The branch is the hub from where we support businesses in Eastleigh, and a corridor for those that we serve in Northern Kenya through our 22 branches there,” says Mr Hassan, explaining that, through its savings, payments, financing and trade facilitation solutions, Equity is a key catalyst of Eastleigh’s economy.
Eastleigh is the first port of call for residents of northern Kenya with business interest in the Nairobi estate.
The chief executive of the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC), Hon Mohammed Guleid, sees a bright future for the region’s residents under devolution. He believes through public-private partnerships, such as can be established between Equity and the counties, northern Kenya can make major development strides.
FCDC is a collaborative platform formed in 2014 and officially registered in April 2016. It comprises the county governments of Lamu, Tana River, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, Isiolo, Turkana, Samburu, and West Pokot.
As its CEO explains, FCDC is geared to strengthening the devolution benefits in its member counties. This is by serving as a catalyst and trigger for sustainable development and prosperity in the region.
Says Hon Guleid: “As a neutral entity and a trusted body by the member counties, FCDC is mandated to facilitate the review and integration of relevant policies, particularly those directly affecting frontier counties, to ensure a better collaboration among concerned agencies and authorities, beyond frontier counties’ boundaries and jurisdictions.”
Hon Guleid says because “Equity is flexible, it can, through PPP frameworks, work with frontier counties to tackle the challenges of water deficiency, shortage of schools and even health in the region. The FCDC region is blessed with natural resources yet to be fully tapped for the benefit of communities and the country in general.”
The branch manager for the Equity Eastleigh branch, Fredrick Gichuku, says by supporting businesses in the business district, the bank is fulfilling its purpose of “transforming lives, giving dignity and expanding opportunities for wealth creation.”
Mary W. Kamau, the director of Mary Happy Schools, who was born and raised in Eastleigh and established the institution there, is yet another example of the entrepreneurs whose businesses Equity is partnering with. The bank has been a partner in the schools’ growth journey.
Mary Kamau, Director Mary Happy Schools in Eastleigh. Mary is one of the beneficiaries of Equity’s asset and mortgage financing solutions.
She opened the institution in 1994 and started banking with Equity about seven years later. Since she opened an account with the bank and took her first loan, she hasn’t looked back, opting to stick with Equity to date.
“We were happy Equity arrived in Eastleigh,” explains Ms Kamau, who has taken several loans from the bank to buy buses for the school and a home for herself.
“When Equity opened its branch here, the existing banks were always packed and the queues were terrible,” she recalls, saying she opened an account with the bank because it had no queues. Moreover, she says, the staff are friendly and the loan approval process fast.
Apart from the mortgage she received in 2017, the Mary Happy Schools founder also has Pay with Equity till numbers and point of sale facilities for parents to pay fees. Through EazzyBiz, she, like the wholesalers, is able to access her account online and conduct internet banking from the comfort of her office or home.
“Equity,” says Ms Kamau, “has been good to me and my schools and that is why I advised my brother to open an account with it in 2014. The bank’s services have helped us to expand and create more jobs.”
Mr Guleid of Sakina Wholesalers says he values the comfort he enjoys of banking conveniently from wherever he is.
The Eastleigh branch opened in 2008 and has been facilitating local traders to import or buy assets such as vehicles.
Other than providing financial services, Equity also aids the education of bright children from poor backgrounds through its Wings to Fly Programme. In 2020 alone, the branch took 45 children to secondary school.
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