How it started
History
Sidian Bank was founded in 1984 as K-Rep Bank, by Kimanthi Mutua who was then the Managing Director of Kenya Rural Enterprise Program (K-Rep). K-Rep was founded in 1984, by Fred O'Regan under the World Education Inc, with funding from USAID. Its objective then was to develop small-scale businesses in the informal sector.
In the beginning, the organization provided grants and technical assistance to non-governmental organizations (NGO). The NGOs then made loans to micro-enterprises. In 1989, K-Rep changed its strategy to lending to NGOs. The technical assistance that had been provided for free now attracted a fee. Kimanthi Mutua, became the Managing Director in 1989 taking over from Dr. Yoder, who succeeded O'Regan in 1997.
In 1999, K-Rep re-organized itself into four entities:
K-Rep Group – This is the parent company. It owns, either wholly or partially, the other three subsidiaries.
K-Rep Development Agency – This agency carries out research and developmental assistance work for the group
From Wikipedia’s article on Sidian Bank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2