East Africa Growth Holding (FMO-64714)

Countries
  • Kenya
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
A
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Dec 20, 2024
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
I&M Group Plc
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 10.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ FMO website

Updated in EWS Jul 30, 2025

Disclosed by Bank Apr 16, 2025

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, I&M Group Plc has the ambition to achieve a higher market share in the retail and MSME segments with focus on under penetrated markets.
The role of FMO will be to share its sectoral expertise and possibly catalyze new market entries. Furthermore, FMOs financing will be key to providing primary growth capital for the company's organic and external growth plans. Additionally, FMO can deepen its existing ESG engagements currently in place at the subsidiary level.

The transaction is expected to result in: (i) improving access to finance for MSMEs and local corporates that play an important role in job creation and wider economic development, (ii) further supporting the Group digital transformation project, (iii) enable the Group to sustainably expand its reach to under-penetrated segments (e.g., MSMEs and agri-business).

Early Warning System Project Analysis
For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

The project has been categorized as E&S Category A, in accordance with FMOs Sustainability Policy - as I&M Group is serving MSME clients and in high risk sectors. While the direct E&S risks to this type of business largely relate to labor conditions and health and safety, the indirect risks include the E&S impact of underlying SME clients to whom the I&M Group lends to.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Total FMO financing: USD 10.00 MLN

Funding: FMO NV

Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

I&M Group Plc is a banking group headquartered in Kenya, operating commercial banks in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and Mauritius (through a Joint Venture). The Group provides several ancillary financial services such as insurance brokerage, financial advisory, and wealth management. I&M (Investments & Mortgages) was launched in Kenya in 1974 and converted into a commercial bank in 1996. The Group serves 600,000 clients and has a strong market reputation, especially in its flagship markets of Kenya and Rwanda. It currently has a loan portfolio of approximately USD 2.2 billion and deposits of USD 3.1 billion.


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

https://www.imbankgroup.com/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

As part of FMO's ex-ante disclosure (disclosure of transactions before contracting), you can send requests or questions for additional information to: disclosure@fmo.nl

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF FMO

Communities who believe they will be negatively affected by a project funded by the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) may be able to file a complaint with the Independent Complaints Mechanism, which is the joint independent accountability mechanism of the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment Corporation (KfW). A complaint can be filed in writing, by email, post, or online. The complaint can be filed in English or any other language of the complainant. The Independent Complaints Mechanism is comprised of a three-member Independent Expert Panel and it can provide either problem-solving, compliance review or both, in either order. Additional information about this accountability mechanism, including a guide and template for filing a complaint, can be found at: https://www.fmo.nl/independent-complaints-mechanism

How it works

How it works