Financial institutions and regulators in Kenya have committed to work together to increase funding to businesses run by women.
Visit the WE Finance Code Kenya websiteWomen make up half of Kenya's population, yet the micro, small and medium enterprises they own or lead face significant barriers to finance. Part of the problem is information. Lenders seldom have detailed, timely data on this market broken down by sex. Without it they struggle to see where women-led firms are underserved, or to design products that suit them.
The WE Finance Code is a global initiative of the World Bank. Financial service providers, regulators, development banks and others sign it as a commitment to increase funding to women-led micro, small and medium enterprises, so that those firms can grow. Kenya formally adopted the Code on December 4th 2025. The launch was held alongside the unveiling of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2025–2028 and the Fourth Medium-Term Plan for the financial services sector, and the Code is anchored in both.
Each signatory appoints a senior leader to champion the work and agrees to collect and report gender-disaggregated data. Signatories also commit to creating financial products and services designed for women entrepreneurs. They held their first working group meeting in February 2026 to agree on the Code's strategic direction.
The WE Finance Code Kenya website lists the current signatories and records the Code's events. It also offers tools for analysing how women-owned MSMEs use credit and deposit services.
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