KCB Bank Kenya on Monday donated 1 million reusable face masks to support the reopening of learning institutions following the decision to ease back Class Eight, Form Four, and Grade 4 students back to school after the Covid-19 induced hiatus.
The initiative seeks to facilitate protecting learners and school administrators from contracting Covid-19 as well as reducing the risk of spreading the disease.
The masks will be distributed to needy students from schools across the country.
“We are catalyzing the reopening of the institutions to ensure a seamless process as well as guarantee the sustainability of the resumption of studies, noting that the virus is still here with us,” said KCB Group CEO and MD Joshua Oigara while presenting some of the masks to the Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha at Olympic Primary School, Kibera, Nairobi on Monday morning.
“This is one of the all-round initiatives which we have rolled out, including a financial support mechanism to boost school operations. This will enable both public and private schools to access loan facilities towards complying with health guidelines set by the ministries for Education and Health,” he added.
Further to the donation of masks, KCB has announced a commercial commitment to aid the rapid reopening of public and private schools with a wide variety of financial support solutions including loans of up to Ksh250 million among other products to ease school reopening pressures.
Prof Magoha said: “We would like to applaud KCB for offering both financial and non-financial support to institutions as they get ready to effectively reopen while at the same time ensuring the safety of the stakeholders and we will keenly observe the partial reopening for the three classes before making a determination to reopen all schools. The donation made by KCB will go a long way to ensure the safety of our students as they go back to school.”
The bank has restructured loans and overdrafts worth more than Ksh1billion for learning institutions since the pandemic struck and the institutions have been granted repayment holidays as they resume operations.
Last week, the bank announced that it has set aside some Ksh250 million for lending to schools as unsecured loans.
The commitment is expected to boost ongoing preparatory efforts by academic institutions raring to reopen and would need financing to get their affairs back in order.
Oigara said the bank had designed a range of tailor-made solutions to ease school reopening pressures.
The bank, he disclosed is currently working with over 23,000 learning centres to help them restore their operations.
