Lodwar, 18th April, 2024

The County Government through the Department of Trade, Enterprise Development, Youth and Gender Affairs has trained SMEs in Turkana on a simple system that can be utilized for access and management of credit from the County Biashara Fund.

The Turkana County Business Loan Management System (TCBLMS), is part of the County’s initiative targeting to enrich user experience during the application, disbursement and repayment of the loan.

The training in Lodwar was organized by the Biashara Fund Board and facilitated by Smart People Africa.

During the training, the Chief Officer for Trade and Enterprise Development, Robert Loyelei, said the move was also meant to address challenges of tracking repayment of loans.

Additionally, Chief Loyelei assured the business people that County lwas keen on avoiding the repeat of fate suffered by many counties in the 2017-2018 where the legal instruments to oversee the process for managing of funds was declared null and void by the court of law for failure of publication in the Kenyan Gazette.

“In ensuring the management of Biashara Fund Loans comply to the approved legal framework, we are working with the County Assembly to re-introduce the laws. At the same time, we are training users on the tech based solutions,” CCO Robert Loyelei said.

On his part, the Director of Trade, James Lokwale, emphasised the benefit of freedom from risk through the use of the LMS platform.

“This is a platform that allows streamlining of processes, enhanced risk management and promotes transparency. Besides, it empowers the users to make right decisions backed by relevant evidence,” Director Lokwale emphasised.

It is expected that the County will soon roll out the application after training of more traders in a bid to encourage all the qualified SME operators including the Youth, marginalized and Women to apply for the funds.