Jennifer Riria is a Kenyan businesswoman, corporate executive, banker, and academic who serves as the group chief executive officer of Echo Network Africa, formerly known as the Kenya Women Holding (KWH), a microfinance, banking, and insurance group serving nearly one million mostly rural Kenyan women.
She is the chairperson of the Kenyan charter of the Africa Women Leaders Network. She also chairs the Kenya Women Mediation Network and is patron of the Democracy Trust Fund.
She is credited for steering the Kenya Women Finance Trust from a single-office operation to one that now has a national presence.
This is her journey as told by WoK:
Early Life
Jennifer was born in the rural countryside near Mount Kenya as the fourth of 10 siblings. She grew up like any other village girl, fetching water, firewood, cooking, and carrying babies on her back.
She attended local schools, where she performed exceptionally. According to her, the KCPE record she set in her school is still unbroken.
Poverty and scarcity shaped her formative years, even forcing her to attend school barefoot. She even shared her bedroom with the household chicken at night.
Despite her exemplary performance in primary school, her father was reluctant to admit her to secondary school.
So, she ran away from home to stay with her sister, who enrolled her at Precious Blood Secondary School and later Dar es salaam university, where she studied for a diploma in education administration.
Higher Education
On returning to Kenya, she taught for a year and a half at Kabete Technical Institute and State House Girls High School.
She was then awarded a government scholarship to study at Leeds University, where she pursued her MAA in education.
She then joined the University of Nairobi for her Ph.D. in women and development.
Meanwhile, she was a lecturer at Kenyatta University as she did her part-time Ph.D.
It was around this time that Jennifer’s passion for women’s empowerment was ignited. She embarked on a mission to link education with the betterment of women’s lives.
Her research revealed the stark gender inequalities prevalent in Kenyan society—exclusion from education, careers, and politics.
She worked at Kenyatta University for ten years, then landed a job with the UN as a consultant.
Quitting UN job
In 1991, Jennifer took a bold leap, leaving the comfortable UN consulting job to helm the Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT).
What she found was a struggling institution drowning in debt, plagued by a tarnished reputation, and lacking effective governance and leadership.
Undeterred, Jennifer rolled up her sleeves and embraced every role imaginable, from CEO to janitor, accountant to loan officer.
The total amount of money in the institution’s accounts was 650 dollars, which Jennifer was expected to use to give loans, pay salaries, and other operational costs.
Since she was not a banker, she had to teach herself about banking and finance.
“It is harder to create an institution than rebuild one,” she comments in reference to KWFT at the time.
Remarkable Turnaround
Jennifer Riria began rebuilding KWFT by putting a professional board in place, attracting investors, and connecting with like-minded institutions.
She was labeled a ‘home breaker’ for her efforts in empowering women. In the 90s, things were so bad that women had to have a male guarantor to get a loan.
In 2004, plans were implemented to make KWFT a microfinance institution due to the need to empower Kenyan women financially.
In 2010, they were awarded a banking license and became one of the first microfinance institutions to be regulated by the central bank.
Jennifer expanded KWFT’s reach to rural areas, where many poor women were unable to access financial services.
She also introduced new products and services that met the needs of women entrepreneurs, such as loans for small businesses and training on financial literacy.
As a result of Riria’s leadership, KWFT has grown to become one of the largest microfinance institutions in Kenya, with over 3 million borrowers.
It has also been recognized as a model microfinance institution by organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations.
Recognition
Jennifer’s journey has been marked by accolades and achievements that mirror her dedication.
In 2017, she won the World Economic Forum’s Woman of the Decade in Innovation and Leadership award.
In 2018, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the African Women’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum.
She has written two books, one titled “Women Change the Way the world works” and the other a history of higher education in Kenya.
In 2016, under her leadership, Kenya Women Holding, a subsidiary of KWFT, built an ultra-modern shopping mall in Nakuru to meet the demand for quality commercial space. The mall is dubbed the KWH hub.
She has served on various boards of notable international and national institutions. She became the first woman to serve on the Nairobi stock exchange board.
Jennifer Riria also served on the board of the National Bank of Kenya and Kenya Post Office Savings Bank.
Her story is an inspiring testament to the fact that a single individual, driven by purpose and a vision for change, can create a ripple effect that resonates through generations.
