The Bank provides loans to projects directly, through syndicates and other forms of co-financing. The Bank’s core activity is direct project lending to medium and large scale enterprises, with emphasis on export-oriented projects. Core business is mainly derived from opportunities arising in productive and service sectors. It is envisaged that over the five years (2016 – 2020) the economy of EAC member states will grow by an average of over 6% per annum.

The sectors which are considered to have good potential for core business are manufacturing, agro-processing, tourism, construction and mining. Core business opportunities are expected to arise in expansion and modernisation of existing industries as well as in start-ups involving light manufacturing of consumer and intermediate goods.