Kenya's informal sector covers all semi-organized and unregulated small-scale activities largely undertaken by self-employed persons or those employing only a few workers, and excludes all farming and pastoral activities. The activities in the sector are carried out by artisans, traders and other operators. It uses simple technology and businesses are not legally registered. The main features of the informal sector include ease of entry, the small scale of activity, self-employment with a high proportion of family workers and apprentices, little capital and equipment, labor intensive technology, low productivity and low incomes, limited access to organized markets and formal credit, and minimal education and training.

Women are over-represented in the informal sector as opposed to the formal sector and despite them, constituting 53% of the labor force, , their participation in wage employment in the modern sector has remained low and they have access to less than 30% of wage employment. A number of factors restrict women's access to formal employment. These include traditional roles, occupational segregation by gender, and lack of access to technology and credit, among others. In the informal sector, female-owned enterprises have been found to employ fewer workers and have less capital compared with male-owned ones . In the informal sector, they are segregated to labor intensive jobs such as trade and services unlike men who are in capital intensive jobs such as manufacturing. This is because these jobs are attributed to low entry capital and skills.

The main goal of this project is to empower women through financial access, impacting skills and financial education to women in the informal sector and transition 100 women owned businesses from the informal to the formal sector. We will train 40 young females in the art of shoemaking and bag making. At the end of the training, they will be attached to various manufacturing companies and micro enterprises to hone their skills and enhance their employability in the formal sector. We will establish a common manufacturing unit equipped with adequate resources for research, development, design and manufacturing that will be accessible to all women manufacturers, not limited to our partners. This unit will provide a low entry into manufacturing for women without the capital to buy equipment to start their businesses. They will also acquaint themselves with manufacturing technology and access resources for development of their products. For women with existing workshops, they can manufacture from here as well for extra capacity. We will be partnering with SME Africa and independent financial consultants to hold workshops and training to give financial education to these women so as to help them make smart financial decisions and understand the perks of the formal sector while we facilitate their smooth transition. We are aiming to onboard 200 businesses on our e-commerce platform where we will provide full market access for their products to increase their sales and in turn drive their growth. We will onboard 200 businesses on our loan and savings platform, all using our loan products and 100 businesses saving with us. We intend to help transition 100 women entrepreneurs into the formal sector.

To achieve the project objectives, Executive Director and seven operational managers will be required. Out of 20% budget will be generated from crowd funding and remaining 80% resources expected from the funding agency. Executive Director is fully responsible for planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and timely reporting to donors of this project.