The Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) is constructing the KFWT Tower which will be a 17-storey office block in Nairobi’s Upper Hill. Once complete, the KFWT Tower will become the headquarters of the Kenya Women Finance Trust
The building which will be named KWFT Tower is set to cost Sh800 million and will take one-and-a-half years to complete starting January 2015.
The deposit-taking micro-lender, which has about 2000 employees in its 231 offices across the 45 out of the 47 counties in Kenya, said it will close several administrative offices in Nairobi and transfer employees to the new building. It intends to occupy half of the building and hopes to rent the other half to local and international organisations seeking to set up regional hubs in the area.
Currently, KWFT is housed in Akira House in UpperHill, and the management says owning its own building will give it stability as opposed to renting. The KWFT tower will be located on Kiambere Road a short distance from Akira House.
In Nairobi for instance, KWFT has administrative offices located in several areas like River Road, South B and Kariobangi. The KWFT tower will enable the institution which has a clientele base of over 600,000 clients to move the staff to Upper Hill in order to consolidate operations. The Kenya Women Finance Trust Tower will thus joint a list of other ultra-modern buildings in the Upper Hill area.
Upper Hill area has become popular with many multi nationals and financial institutions seeking to expand their operations due to the availability of space and reduced challenges associated with the already congested CBD. Other offices under construction in the area include a 22 storied UAP towers, 30-storey Britam towers, 21 storey KCB plaza, 20 storey Panafrica Insurance, and 17 storey Mwalimu National Sacco Building.
KWFT made history when it became the first microfinance bank in Kenya to become a member of Kenya Bankers Association. It was formed in 1981 by a group of women lawyers, bankers and entrepreneurs and its devoted to addressing solely financial needs of women to enable them to improve their economic status and livelihoods.
KWFT is also planning to sell 25% of its shares to Rural Impulse Fund from Luxembourg and NMI AS from Norway. It offers products ranging from Business loans, clean energy loans, agriculture loans among other products.