Kenyan banks spent Kes6.7Bn in CSR activities in three years

Kenya’s banking industry spent Kes6.7billion in the past three years and Kes2.1billion in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in 2018 alone.

The latest 2019 Kenya Banking Industry Shared Value Report released today by the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), also shows that lenders picked Education sector as their first choice social investment area followed by health and environment.

Overall, banks have donated in excess of Kes 9 Billion since 2015 in CSR activities, which has contributed greatly to Kenya’s realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the report.

“Our key finding is the fact that when banks do well, our communities do better. Corporate Social Investment (CSI) is no longer a one-off engagement as previously perceived. Commercial banks in Kenya spent Sh2.1 billion in 2018 towards corporate social investment and a cumulative Sh6.7 billion over the past three years,” said Habil Olaka, the Chief executive of Kenya Bankers’ Association.

The National Government has also benefited tremendously from banks’ profitability.

Tax revenue paid to the Government has increased exponentially over the years and in the 2017/2018 financial year, banks paid more than Sh73 billion to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). Over the same period, commercial banks spent Sh39 billion creating employment opportunities.

Kenya banks have equally lent a total of Sh2.53 trillion to the various sectors of the economy as at September 2018. Yet, much remains to be done to reduce the barriers to finance for vulnerable groups in the society, including women, youth and persons with disabilities.

“It is encouraging to see the creative approaches KBA member banks have adopted in recent years to knock down these barriers. We have highlighted some examples in this report,” said Olaka during the report’s launch.