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How agri-SMEs are reshaping family business succession
Oikocredit is helping family-owned agribusinesses in Kenya strengthen succession, governance, and sustainability through training and impact investment.
In 1975, when the family of Oiko thought of starting Oikocredit, few people and organisations, including some of the credit institutions, took them seriously.
Fifty years later, the Oikocredit family-owned business plays a crucial role in the social and economic landscape in East Africa. In Kenya, the social impact investor has been a vital source of employment, especially in agricultural sector, improving food security, and community well-being.
Despite their importance, fewer than 20 percent of family owned enterprises survive beyond the second generation as most face challenges in leadership transitions, governance, and maintaining generational continuity.
Family businesses play a critical role in Kenya, especially in agricultural sector. Many organisations in this area often face usual challenges such as informal decision-making, founder-dependence, undocumented succession pathways, and internal conflict.
As these businesses grow, these issues tend to worsen, especially when leadership transitions across generations are delayed or skipped.
Simultaneously, broader trends like global competition, digital transformation, climate change, and changing regulations are exerting increasing pressure on small and medium -sized enterprises (SMEs) to become more professional.
The repercussions are evident: a lack of succession planning not only jeopardises business continuity but also diminishes investor confidence and community resilience.
As a member of the World Council of Churches with the aim of promoting social justice through ethical investment, Oikocredit managed to direct capital to many organisations that create social and economic impact, especially in low-income communities to realise their potential.
This has made the organisation a prominent global social impact investor with a strong presence in sectors such as finance, renewable energy, and agriculture.
The other area which Oikocredit has made a great impact on is in SMEs. They have been supporting the small and growing businesses, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, by providing capacity building, credit, and equity investments. This approach helps enterprises, particularly in underserved rural economies, to become more sustainable, scalable, and resilient.
But despite their success, Oiko, recognising thes challenges affecting family businesses over the years, has been working closely with the leaders in the sector through capacity building to ensure that they succeed.
One such effort is a succession and governance training programme in partnership with the Strathmore Business School (SBS) and other organisations which provides frameworks, tools, and coaching to plan strategically for the future.
More than just a capacity-building effort, this is a transformational journey that combines technical governance training with relational insights, helping families redefine success not only as profit or survival but as passing on a shared vision responsibly and sustainably across generations.
Since 2024, under the same partnership, they have customised intervention for 17 agricultural SMEs, with more than 75 percent of them being women-led.
The program includes the following: A five-day intensive executive course in Nairobi; Six tailored on-site mentor coaching visits, Governance toolkits, digital transformation insights, and strategic planning models.
This combined approach aimed to enhance both the operational strength and relational cohesion of each enterprise, ensuring governance was not just documented but understood, embraced, and practiced by all generations involved.
The programme specifically targeted family-owned agricultural SMEs in Kenya, with a focus on the following: How professionalise operations while retaining core family values; Digital tools for planning, recordkeeping, and marketing, Seeking long-term intergenerational continuity rather than short-term fixes, among others.
The businesses selected in partnership with KWFT ensured the representation from diverse geographies and backgrounds. Many of the 43 participating family members including 21 women—were from first- and second-generation leadership tiers, reflecting a growing appetite for inclusive decision-making and women’s leadership in succession planning.
These participants were not just passive learners; they were active co-creators of solutions, engaging in difficult conversations about legacy, ownership, power-sharing, and the evolving identity of their family enterprises.
Some started the course with deeply rooted internal resistance. Others lacked clarity about who would take over. But all left with tools, insights, and most importantly a shared language for the future.
Over the years, the Family Business Programme under SBS has been providing family-owned enterprises and businesses with the knowledge, tools, and structured support for sustainability.
They also need to strengthen governance, navigate leadership transitions, and align family values with long-term business strategy. By combining academic insight with mentorship, peer learning, and practical frameworks, the programme has been able to empower families to professionalise their businesses, manage generational change effectively, and build sustainable enterprises that can thrive beyond the founder’s generation.
Mutura is the Director and Academic Director of the Centre for Research on Work & Family: Research & Consultancy and Mumo is a Research Assistant at CROWF, Strathmore Business School.
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