How local youth will benefit from Coca-Cola fund

The Nairobi-based organisation picked as a key partner in a $4.5 million (Sh432m) African youth empowerment programme has said the initiative would enhance the partnership between the private and public sectors in checking unemployment.  

Kuza Biashara founder and chief mentor Mr Sriram Bharatam told the Sunday Nation the Youth Empowered for Success! (YES!) will put unemployed, underemployed and vulnerable youth on the right track.

Mr Bharatam said working with local Coca-Cola bottlers, YES! will train the selected youths in skills, link them up with employment opportunities, support them in jobs and entrepreneurship and enable  collaboration with governments, the private sector and civil society. 

“Kuza Biashara’s role is to integrate the four pillars (train, link, thrive, enable) through a technology platform and also create a monitoring and evaluation  framework for the overall programme,” he said. 

Last week in Cape Town, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation launched the initiative that will initially provide life skills training, business skills training and access to employment and entrepreneurship for at least 25,000 people between the ages of 18-35 from Kenya, Tunisia and South Africa.

Mr Nathan Kalumbu, President of the Coca-Cola Eurasia and Africa Group and chairman of the foundation, said YES! will partly address concerns that every year more than 10 million young Africans are entering the workforce yet less than half that number of employment opportunities are available. 

“Harnessing the incredible energy and ambition of a young and growing population will be critical to Africa’s future economic advancement,” he said at the recent World Economic Forum on Africa.

Kuza Biashara, which covers at least 15 African countries, began as a social enterprise in 2011, to create a viable capacity building platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with particular attention to women and the youth.

USE OF MOBILE

Mr Bharatam stressed the high and effective use of mobile and social media platforms by Kenyan youth.

“Youth and SMEs are embracing learning, especially when provided to them in small nuggets on-demand and in-the-context,” he said, adding that his organisation’s micro-learning platform had proved effective.  

The youth programme will also create entrepreneurship opportunities through hubs — retail and social service centres owned and run by the trained youth.

Mr Kalumbu said the use of technology will widen the reach of Yes!

“We are establishing an e-mentoring system where the youth can network online with their peers and other partners to get the training they require. As long as a youth has a smart phone, they have access in their hands,” he told the Sunday Nation last week, adding that Yes! will dovetail with the company’s women empowerment programmes.

Dr Susan Mboya-Kidero, President of the Coca-Cola Foundation and Director of Women Empowerment, was also at the three-day event in Cape Town where it was further announced that Nigeria, Liberia and Uganda will benefit from the next phase of the programme that seeks to reach 500,000 youths by 2020.

The other implementing partners are Mercy Corps, Microsoft and Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator — a South African organisation that connects employers with young talent.

The Kenyan government has identified youth unemployment and lack of skills as a key challenge and has encouraged partnerships with the private sector.