Equity Bank, Tian Tang Group team up to bankroll Mbale’s factory floor

More than 2,000 businesses inside the Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park are set to get easier access to credit.

Equity Bank Uganda and Tian Tang Group have struck a partnership to open up financing across the park’s manufacturing ecosystem, which already employs roughly 15,000 Ugandans.

Under the deal, Equity will offer working capital, business loans and corporate banking services aimed at helping park-based manufacturers expand production, buy machinery and keep operations running day to day.

The bank is also putting in training on cash-flow management, bookkeeping and corporate governance — the kind of financial record-keeping that determines whether a business can get a loan in the first place. The logic: better books today, more credit tomorrow.

The ripple effects are meant to travel beyond the factory gates. As manufacturing output rises, so should demand for local transporters, suppliers, traders and construction and food businesses in the communities surrounding the park.

“By strengthening this relationship, we can unlock the financial solutions needed to accelerate enterprise development and drive economic transformation,” said Laurent Zhang, administrative manager at Tian Tang Group.

For Equity Bank Uganda, the tie-up fits a broader push into Uganda’s industrialisation drive.

“This initiative is dedicated to transforming lives within the local community, which directly aligns with our core mission to champion socio-economic prosperity and sustainable development,” said Gift Shoko, Equity bank’s managing director.

Equity brings scale to the partnership: more than 50 branches, over 9,000 agency banking outlets and 2,000-plus merchants across Uganda.

For Mbale, the real test will be whether that reach translates into loans that actually land — turning industrial investment into paychecks, supplier contracts and steadier businesses across the wider value chain.