AfDB’s $10 Million Family Bank Deal Targets Kenya’s Import Finance Bottleneck

Micro, small and medium-sized businesses make up more than 80% of Family Bank’s customer base. A new $10 million financing agreement with the African Development Bank aims to strengthen the Kenyan lender’s ability to serve those businesses as access to foreign currency and money for imports remains a challenge.

AfDB and Family Bank signed the agreement in Nairobi, according to The Standard Kenya Business (direct). Worth Sh1.297 billion, the trade finance facility—a funding arrangement that supports cross-border business—will help smaller enterprises and local corporations access foreign currency and financing. Its reach covers manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, renewable energy and general commerce, rather than a single industry.

Funding the goods businesses need

The challenge is practical: Kenyan companies face constraints in obtaining the foreign currency and trade funding needed to bring in goods, equipment and raw materials. The facility is intended to help them meet those import needs, strengthen local supply and production networks, and expand what they can produce. Women-owned and women-led businesses are also among the enterprises the financing is expected to support.

For Family Bank, the agreement provides a way to expand lending to the smaller businesses that dominate its customer base. Chief Executive Officer Nancy Njau said the bank would give priority to financing that creates opportunities for companies while supporting broader participation in economic growth. The stated focus puts business opportunities, rather than simply a larger pool of funding, at the centre of the bank’s plans.

AfDB’s Director General for East Africa, Alex Mubiru, said after the signing that the partnership reflected the development bank’s commitment to strengthening Kenya’s financial system and supporting local businesses. AfDB head of trade finance Lamin Drammeh described the expected benefit in terms of pressure on companies trading across borders.

Drammeh said the financing was intended to ease pressure on Kenyan importers and exporters while creating opportunities for sustainable economic activity.

A local deal within a wider trade gap

Drammeh also placed the agreement within Africa’s broader shortage of trade finance, which he estimated at more than $74 billion. The $10 million facility addresses a much narrower slice of that challenge through a Kenyan lender. Its intended beneficiaries include both smaller enterprises and local corporations, linking the development bank’s continental trade priorities with the financing needs of businesses in Kenya.

The facility is also expected to support commerce between African countries and help advance the African Continental Free Trade Area, an initiative intended to increase trade across the continent. That gives the agreement a regional purpose alongside its immediate focus on Kenyan businesses’ access to finance and foreign currency.

Family Bank reported assets of Sh238.9 billion and deposits of Sh180.2 billion as of June 2026. The next point to watch is how the new facility translates into lending: whether it helps companies finance imports and expand production, and how it reaches the smaller and women-led businesses identified as priorities.