SHE MEANS BUSINESS| Banking on women: Elizabeth Wasunna’s mission to support SMEs

Starting off as an intern at the same company, which by then was operating as Barclays Bank, Kenya, Elizabeth cut her teeth in the banking industry and worked for several other financial institutions before returning to her roots – now operating as Absa Bank Kenya – with a passion for helping women (and men) running SMEs get funding and build the right networks needed to scale up their businesses.

She Means Business sat with Elizabeth to discuss how more women can take up space in the entrepreneurship table and build thriving businesses.

She constantly refers to the importance and key role mentorship has played in her life and says that it is important to be brave and courageous to achieve anything meaningful in life.

While Elizabeth is passionate about supporting women-led businesses, she is keen not to leave out men, whom she says also face hurdles building businesses and play a role in ensuring that the ecosystem thrives through collaboration.

Elizabeth says that she has learnt through the years that to ensure balance in all facets of her life – be it professional or personal – to avoid making one area suffer, and adds that having “low tolerance for nonsense” helps keep clarity on the things that matter.

On some of the reasons why some SMEs fail to thrive, Elizabeth points to lack of proper business planning and the “me too” syndrome, where some people get into business purely because they saw someone else start a similar business.

She points to the importance of having a proper plan, doing research and getting feedback to helping build a strong business.

For more on Elizabeth’s career journey and what it takes to build a thriving business, watch the full episode of She Means Business.