Africa > East Africa > Kenya > Kenya’s Equity Bank Seeks Investment Opportunities within Health Sector

Kenya: Kenya’s Equity Bank Seeks Investment Opportunities within Health Sector

2015/03/05

Kenyan-based Equity Bank says it is interested in exploring investment opportunities within the country’s health sector, as it seeks to exploit increasing request for healthcare in the country. The bank intends to open a chain of clinics across the East African country under the name ‘Equity Afia’.

The new business will operate as a franchised network under the social arm of the bank, Equity Group Foundation (EGF). It will offer “affordable and high quality” healthcare, the lender says.

“EGF, a non-profit-making operating foundation registered in Kenya, plans to execute a sustainable, integrated health model that uses a franchise approach to provide standardised, quality health care,” Business Daily quoted the bank as having said in a notice.

To set up and run its chain of clinics, Equity Bank has started recruiting health professionals. Advertisements have been placed for the post of a chief nursing officer, chief laboratory technologist, finance manager and an IT manager.

Millions of Kenyans cannot afford to pay for health services at public or private clinics. Although health insurance has been available since 1966, only 20 % of Kenyans have access to some sort of medical coverage, the World Bank noted in an article on Kenya’s Health Insurance Subsidy Program (HISP) supported by the lender.

While the HISP initiative is extending financial risk protection to Kenya’s poorest, Equity Bank’s entry into the healthcare business is expected to further extend affordable healthcare to Kenyans. The lender is as well expected to provide medical cover packages acceptable at the Equity Afia clinics.

Florida State University
Related Articles

  • Jambojet took delivery of their first Bombardier Q400NextGen aircraft

    2015/03/28 Jambojet, Kenya Airways’ in-home, low-cost carrier subsidiary, yesterday took delivery of their initial Bombardier Q400NextGen aircraft, at the same time as it arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Registered as 5Y-QUE, in two days, the aircraft will be enter commercial service with flights to Jambojet’s new domestic destinations Lamu, Malindi, and Ukunda. As the Easter weekend is coming up, there is an expected rise in passenger numbers to the Kenya coast, in particular to Lamu and Malindi/Watamu’s food festivals which will get a shot in the arm as additional people can fly to the coast. As well available is the option to again fly from Lamu to Malindi as the flight routing combines the two destinations, allowing for visits to both of these towns, one ancient and giving a glimpse back in time and the other all set for visitors to party in the resorts or enjoy the endless sandy beaches.

  • Foreign and Commonwealth Office yesterday once again tightened the screws on Kenya and its tourism industry

    2015/03/28 Within days of a visit by the UK’s Foreign Secretary to Nairobi and Kenya’s refusal to renew a troop training transaction unless the UK agreed to have all troops deployed to Kenya subjected to Kenyan law, the almost predictable backlash came down hard on Kenya’s most vulnerable economic sector - tourism. Normally well-informed sources in Nairobi claim that while an attack on a hotel in Mogadishu had sadly taken place yesterday, this could not be equated to the situation in Kenya itself and that no indication was given to the Kenyan security apparatus by the UK, or other foreign intelligence services operating in Kenya, of any imminent attack or a heightened possibility of such an event.

  • Kenya’s Retail Economy More Formalised Than Nigeria’s, Says Nielsen

    2015/03/05 Kenya is the second most formalised retail economy in Africa next South Africa, a survey carried out by the New York Stock Exchange-listed research company, Nielsen has revealed. The consumer statement focusing on five sub-Saharan Africa economies, which was released on Monday, indicates that 30 % of Kenyans shop in proper retail outlets compared to 60 % in South Africa. The commercial powerhouse of East Africa is ranked ahead of Ghana which has only four % of its people patronising retail shops. It as well tops Cameroon and Nigeria, both of which have two % of shoppers visiting supermarkets.

  • Revised IMF forecasts signal gloom on global economic outlook

    2015/01/20 Low oil prices will not provide a sufficient updraught to dispel the clouds hanging over the world economy, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. In a sign of its increasing gloom about the medium term economic outlook, the IMF cut its world economic increase forecasts by 0.3 % points for both 2015 and 2016, despite believing cheaper oil represents a “shot in the arm”.

  • Oxfam Study Finds Richest 1% Is Likely to Control Half of Global Wealth by 2016

    2015/01/20 The richest 1 % are likely to control additional than half of the globe’s total wealth by next year, the charity Oxfam reported in a study released on Monday. The warning about deepening world inequality comes just as the world’s business elite prepare to meet this week at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The 80 wealthiest people in the world all own $1.9 trillion, the statement found, nearly the same all shared by the 3.5 billion people who occupy the bottom half of the world’s gain scale. (Last year, it took 85 billionaires to equal that figure.) And the richest 1 % of the people, who number in the millions, control nearly half of the world’s total wealth, a share that is as well increasing.
Kenya News
More >
UCLGA en
Trending Articles
Rwandair
Business Park of Mauritius Ltd, Mauritius
CISCO