Betty Karimi Wins Female CEO of the Year at the COYA Awards

Recognition for women leading trade and finance businesses in Kenya doesn’t come often enough, which is why this one matters. Betty Karimi, Founder and Managing Director of Recolte Limited, has been named Female CEO of the Year at the COYA Awards, a national honour that celebrates leaders driving real economic impact through their organisations

A National Stage for SME-Focused Leadership

The award was presented by the Principal Secretary, State Department for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development, Hon. Susan Auma Mang’eni. Having a sitting Principal Secretary present the trophy signals something beyond a corporate accolade. It reflects how central SME-focused leadership has become to Kenya’s economic policy conversation, and how closely the government now watches the private players that fund the country’s tender and procurement ecosystem.

For a trade finance company built specifically to serve SMEs, contractors, and suppliers rather than large corporates, that recognition lands differently. It is an acknowledgment that the work of unlocking bid bonds, performance guarantees, and working capital for smaller businesses is not a niche service, but a driver of national economic inclusion.

The Journey Behind the Award

Betty Karimi’s path to this recognition was not built overnight. She founded Recolte Limited to specialise in bid bonds and guarantees at a time when most SMEs in Kenya had only one place to turn for tender security: traditional banks, with their collateral demands and slow turnaround times. Betty pioneered a 30-minute bid bond processing model, a turnaround speed that gave Kenyan SMEs a real competitive edge when racing tight tender deadlines.

She went on to secure partnerships with leading financial and insurance institutions to make fast, collateral-light bonding solutions possible at scale. Building on that foundation, she co-founded RecoSIB LLP, expanding into working capital products such as LPO Financing, Invoice Discounting, Contract Financing, and Reverse Factoring. Together, these instruments have enabled thousands of SMEs and contractors to access capital for project execution across construction, ICT, supply chain, and NGO services.

Why This Recognition Matters for Kenya’s SME Ecosystem

Kenya’s public procurement system under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act (PPADA) 2015 requires bid security, performance security, and often an advance payment guarantee before a contractor can even begin work. For decades, these requirements have quietly locked out capable SMEs that simply cannot tie up cash as collateral. Leadership that builds structured, fast alternatives to that model does more than grow a company. It widens who gets to compete for Kenya’s tenders in the first place.

This award is a reminder that the businesses closing that gap, and the women leading them, deserve to be seen at the national level, not only within the trade finance industry itself.

What This Means for Recolte’s Clients

For the contractors and suppliers Recolte works with every day, this recognition changes nothing about how the business operates, and that is precisely the point. Recolte remains committed to strengthening SME participation in procurement, infrastructure, and supply chains across Kenya and the wider region, through reliable bid bonds, performance guarantees, and structured financial solutions that help businesses win tenders and execute with confidence.

Congratulations to Betty Karimi on this achievement, and to the entire Recolte team whose daily work makes it possible.

Partner With Recolte Limited

Whether you are bidding on your first government tender or scaling a supply chain business across East Africa, Recolte Limited is built to back you. Reach out to a team recognised for leadership in Kenya’s trade finance sector.