Kenya: Fund Continues to Build Capacity of Youths

By George Okore

NAIROBI---While campaigning for presidency in 2002, Mwai Kibaki singled out employment creation as the major plank of his manifesto. He said youths constitute two thirds of the economically active population. Without training rather than the formal education, this significant segment of the society lacked not only jobs, but skills for the market.

True to his promise, President Kibaki launched Youth Enterprises Development Fund on February 1, 2006 to fund youth projects and offer employment to the youths, who were suffering from unemployment or under employment. Officially gazetted in December 8, 2006, the Fund is proving to be a bold and ambitious investment.

Youth Affairs and Sport Minister Paul Otuoma Wednesday launched the status report of fund since inception, painting clear picture as the Fund specifically formed to young people start and expand their businesses. By offering seed money  kick start  businesses, the minister says  the Fund is  a case  study for  regional countries like Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda , Namibia, Uganda , Zambia  and other international bodies.

This fund was designed to address challenges facing youth owned enterprises. These challenges include inaccessibility to capital, lack of youth focused commercial institutions and barriers to market and other linkages.  “Despite   initial teething problems, the Fund have to date has disbursed loans worth Ksh 5.2 billion to 144, 000 youth enterprises. Soon, we will work with other stakeholders to recognize and reward outstanding youth business enterprises”, says the Minister.

According to the Fund CEO   Mwangala Juma Mwatata, the Fund nurtures, incubates and matures many young Kenyan entrepreneurs into fully fledged business persons. This is achieved by spreading its tentacles using two interns, fully trained and posted to all 210 electoral constituencies in the country.  “We have trained over 200,000 youth into entrepreneurship and assisted 1, 800 to market their products and services. A further 6,000 youths have been facilitated to obtain employment skills and expertise.” says Mr. Mwatata.

Mr Mwatata says through strategic partnership with other stakeholders, young entrepreneurs in Kenya are being integrated into mainstream financial service. Susan Auma Mang’eni, a board member says several organizations are keenly interested in products developed by the youths and the Fund will continue to assist more youths businesses   find markets for their produce and services.  The Fund was officially launched by President Kibaki on February 1, 2007 and transformed into a State Corporation on May 8, 2007.