Above: Mr Maina left during the Forum
On Thursday 25th August 2016, the Informal Sector Business Institute (ISBI) in conjunction with Equity bank held an informal business forum. The purpose of this forum was to promote informal sector businesses as well as create opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs. The event started with the introduction of the members present and their current occupations.
Speakers of the event were Mr. Moses Muthaka, the ISBI manager at ECT, Mr. Ben Maina Equity investment department Donholm branch and Mr. Simon Mwangi Nderitu, Equitel Equity Donholm branch.
Mr. Maina talked about financial education (literacy where by he mentioned that this discipline has various key areas which include;
Budget. In this area, he emphasized prioritizing on needs as opposed to wants in order to live a comfortable life. He added that spending more than one earns might lead to a budget deficit which in turn leads to debts hence one should not live beyond his or her financial means.
Savings was another financial education which Mr. Maina talked about and in this he said that proper budgeting enables one to manage his or her finances well which in turn leads to surplus. Other areas which Mr. Maina highlighted were bank services, loans (debt management) and investments.
Mr. Simon Mwangi Nderitu who is in charge of Equitel talked about innovation in Equity bank trough introduction of mobile banking which gives someone the freedom, choice and control of bank services since all of them are found in the same platform (Equitel). He added that Equitel allows one to access both banking and telecommunication services like depositing and withdrawal of cash, checking bank balances, buying airtime, making calls, buying data bundles among other services.
Above: Forum Attendants
He also talked about the future services which Equity bank is planning to offer such as Easy pay service which will enable one to pay for goods and services using his or her Equitel line.
Participants of the event later got a chance to open Equity bank accounts