Kenya: World Bank Funds Ksh. 1.6 billion for Youth Empowerment

By Lilian Museka

Kenya is among the 30 world’s poorest countries in the world, ranking 152 out of 177 according to the 2006 Human Development Index.

And with 78 percent of Kenya’s population younger than 35 years facing unemployment of 70 percent according to last census, seven out of ten unemployed are aged between 18 – 35 years.

The government’s promise of 1,000,000 new jobs was not met last year; however the Economic Outlook for 2014 shows that the country requires over 1 million jobs annually.

In 2013, the formal sector recorded 116,800 new jobs of which the public sector contributed 26,300 while the informal sector recorded 636,000. This means that the informal sector is a large contributor to the growth of the country’s economy.

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) in conjunction with the government received funding of upto 1.6 billion Kenya Shillings from World Bank for the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project (KYEP) for life skills training.

The four year pilot project that ends in 2015 aims to train upto 16,000 youth with skills  and provide internship to atleast 11,000 of the former.

It is one of the government’s projects being implemented by the Ministry of Devolution and Planning with the objective of supporting the government’s efforts to improve youth employment.

Implementation is done in cycles of six months with the first three months of soft skills training and workplace experience taking up the last three.

Over 12,900 youth have already received training in iife skills with 71 percent having secured employment in the private sector.

It targets unemployed youth while employing a private-public partnership approach where  the government provides the funds and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance Co-ordinates implementation.

Currently the programme is implemented in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu Counties but youth all over are encouraged to participate.

While addressing over 200 small scale business owners, The KYEP  co-ordinator  in the Ministry of Planning and Devolution Ms Alice Githu  regretted that the number of youth entering the job market annually was increasing with very few employment opportunities.

She added that most employers shy away from employing most youth saying that they lack experience and most skills not being offered in colleges.

Githu called on the small business owners to take advantage of the project in a bid to help the youth by giving them internship opportunities.

Focus sectors in the Vision 2030 for potential growth include finance, ICT, tourism, manufacturing and micro and small enterprises.