Child & Elder Care Foundation
Every group and every enterprise deserves to be counted.
We take Kenya’s grassroots groups and MSMEs from informality to formal recognition — then connect them to the banks, buyers and services that unlocks.
Figures reflect current programme design and consortium scope. Verified delivery figures are published in our annual report.
The problem
Formalised on paper does not always mean formalised in practice.
Self-help groups, cooperatives, table banking groups, faith-based networks and MSMEs form the backbone of Kenya’s grassroots economy. Most remain trapped in informality — not by choice, but by structural friction in the systems meant to formalise them.
Fewer than 10% of community groups, and fewer than 5% of county social services directorates, are even aware the Community Groups Registration Act 2022 exists. And where registration does happen, it rarely converts into real market access: no separation of personal and business finances, no usable transaction history, no route into structured buyers or financial products.
Solving one problem without the other fails groups either way. A group that is formalised but stagnant has gained a certificate and nothing else. A group with market access but no registration cannot use it.
The problem, and our approach
One digitally integrated pathway, two problems solved together.
Sequenced government partnerships and financial institutions, unified by a single digital platform, take a group or MSME from first contact through to sustained market participation.
The problem
Regulatory fragmentation and weak conversion from formal status to market access — why fixing one half is not enough, and how we address both.
Read moreResults
Regulatory and administrative simplification, paired with financial literacy, negotiated banking and insurance products, and aggregation into structured markets.
Read moreOur consortium
Five government institutions and three financial partners, each contributing the specific mandate a group needs at each stage.
Read moreHow it works
From an informal circle of trust to a bankable enterprise.
Formalisation only becomes empowerment when it is fast, affordable, and immediately followed by usable market and financial access. Each stage reduces friction at the point where groups currently stall.
- Registration lets a group open an account and hold property in its own name.
- Tax compliance — a KRA PIN and simplified eTIMS onboarding — lets the group invoice, supply and bid for tenders.
- Internal dispute resolution keeps a group functioning through the conflict that pooled money inevitably produces.
- Staged financial literacy unlocks negotiated savings, credit and insurance products designed for group realities.
Who we work through
We do not issue anything ourselves.
Every certificate, licence or account a group ends up holding comes from the institution with the legal mandate to issue it. CECF is lead applicant and implementing partner — our contribution is grassroots trust, reach and delivery experience, sequenced into a single pathway.
Bring your group or MSME in
Assistance is free. Bring what you have — we will tell you plainly what is missing and what it will cost, before you spend anything.