Women's economic empowerment Kenya

Kenya is home to a thriving community of successful women entrepreneurs. Operating across a wide range of sectors, they are ambitious to scale their businesses and expand into international markets. To fully unlock this potential, the business ecosystem is actively evolving to better support women-led enterprises, ensuring they can seamlessly access the resources and networks needed for accelerated growth and export success.

Through the Kenya women's economic empowerment (WEE) (2021– 2027) project, CBI partners with these women entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs and CBI collaborate to promote cross-sectoral change across the whole ecosystem. Trade Support Institutions are actively embedding gender-responsive approaches, while businesses are opening up pathways to finance, scaling exports to Dutch and European markets, and building inclusivity from farm to factory.

This project is now in its final phase. We seek Dutch and European buyers and knowledge partners to connect Kenyan women exporters to global markets.

Project purpose 

Kenya’s growing economy offers strong potential for broader participation, and women entrepreneurs are playing a vital role in this momentum. While women are traditionally active across various economic sectors, scaling their businesses internationally involves navigating specific structural factors, such as access to land, finance, and professional networks, alongside balancing responsibilities like unpaid care work.

Building on Kenya’s active ecosystem of business support, the CBI project works alongside local partners to unlock new opportunities for women in export value chains, drive collaboration, and expand access to international markets.

The project follows 4 pathways: 

1. Access to Finance: Working with banks to help them unlock women exporters as a viable and profitable market segment, while collaborating with women entrepreneurs as they prepare and secure investment for growth;
2. Access to markets: Working with eleven Trade Support Institutions to make them more gender-responsive, and connecting women exporters to European buyers;
3. The One Voice Trade network: A new national network for women in trade, now officially registered, with its own secretariat and board.
4. Community inclusivity: Launching a pilot with macadamia processors and farmers in Kenya to improve production quality and empower women at community and household level.

Together, these pathways are aimed at supporting individual businesses and to further build towards a gender-sensitive support ecosystem around them.

Become a partner 

We are specifically looking for:

• European and Dutch importers who source or want to source products from Kenya, and who value women-led and gender-inclusive supply chains
• Financial institutions or guarantee funds that can help de-risk lending to women entrepreneurs in export
• Organisations or networks that want to connect with or support the One Voice women's trade network in Kenya
• Knowledge partners with expertise in gender-responsive business support, compliance, or export readiness.

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What does a partnership with CBI look like? 

CBI does not provide funding. We connect and facilitate.

If you are a Dutch or European importer, we can connect you to a group of Kenyan women exporters who developed their skills further and received market access support through this project. We can also share insights on buyer requirements and compliance gaps that we have identified through our work with Trade Support Institutions.

If you are a financial or knowledge partner, we can offer collaboration on specific challenges, particularly around de-risking finance for women entrepreneurs, or strengthening the One Voice network.

There is no fee to become a partner.

Partners

This project is in its final phase. We are now focused on bringing the four pathways together and making sure the results last beyond the project duration.

One area in which we are looking for partners is in connecting Kenyan women exporters to Dutch and European buyers. Our European Union (EU) Study Tour in 2025 confirmed clearly that the biggest challenge for many women exporters is not travel or exposure. It is access to structured buyer linkages and support with market compliance.

Current partners include:

• Financial institutions: DTB, Family Bank, and SBM
• Trade support institutions: EPCK, HCD, KENtrade, Kephis, Keprob, OWIT, and WICCI.
• SMEs: Onja Uone, Privam, The batian nuts, The tropical, and TVN

If you are a Dutch or European importer who sources products from Kenya, or who is interested in exploring this, this is a real opportunity to make a difference. The women exporters in this project are ambitious, talented, and ready to grow. We can link you to sector associations and trade support institutions that have a huge network of female exporters in a range of sectors from agribusiness to home decoration.

We also seek to connect with funds or banks offering credit guarantees or other de-risking mechanisms for banks that want to give loans to SMEs. This can help unlock and demonstrate the potential of formal financial product offerings for women exporters in Kenya.

If you are interested in the One Voice Women Trade network, Kenya's national platform for women in trade, we welcome potential members and partners. Visit www.onevoice.ke  to learn more.

Collaborate with us

Would you like to help Kenyan women entrepreneurs connect to European markets andbuild more sustainable businesses? Express your interest by clicking the button down below.

For questions or more information, please contact Cathelijne van Melle. We would love to hear your ideas and work together to shape this project into a success.

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About CBI

CBI promotes sustainable production and trade between low-and middle-income countries and the Netherlands and Europe. We partner with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their ecosystem to strengthen their social and environmental sustainability. 

CBI is part of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and commissioned by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.