2,500 young farmers receive training, funding to grow soya beans
KCB Foundation Executive Director Jane Mwangi. Together with Bidco, the foundation has embarked on a project to boost young farmers in soya cultivation in Bungoma. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The youths under the programme had never had an experience in getting an agribusiness bank loan hence the reason why KCB Foundation takes them through the training in business planning and access to finance.
- The programme seeks to empower 10,000 youth every year to start small businesses that will employ at least five people each.
- The funding is an interest free loan comes after the youths successfully completed training that is expected to enable them venture into soya beans farming.
- The loans are only given for one cycle where they are supported to keep financial and productivity records which later prepares them for commercial financing during the next cycle.
A group of 2,500 young farmers have received funding to grow crops whose markets have already been established.
In a first of a kind plan, KCB Foundation, which is spearheading the plan, has already signed an agreement with edible oils maker Bidco to buy soya beans from the farmers in Bungoma County.
“We are catalysing economic empowerment by skilling and funding the youths while linking them with market opportunities. These youths under the programme had never had an experience in getting an agribusiness bank loan hence the reason why KCB Foundation takes them through the training in business planning and access to finance. The youths are then helped to package the application for financing which results to loan approval,” said KCB Foundation executive director Jane Mwangi.
On Thursday, the KCB Foundation, the social investment arm of KCB Group, issued cheques worth more than Sh10 million to the 2,438 beneficiaries under the lender’s 2Jiajiri job creation flagship project.
The programme seeks to empower 10,000 youth every year to start small businesses that will employ at least five people each.
This translates to 50,000 jobs for young people directly created through this programme by the end of the five years.
The funding is an interest free loan comes after the youths successfully completed training that is expected to enable them venture into soya beans farming.
The youths will not need any collateral and no prior experience in the business is needed. However, everyone must undergo the training.
The agribusiness training by the KCB Foundation, in partnership with the Railway Training Institute (RTI) International has a broad goal of improving income and employment opportunities for the youth aged between 18 and 35 who have not completed secondary school education.
The loans are only given for one cycle where they are supported to keep financial and productivity records which later prepares them for commercial financing during the next cycle.
“Kenya has the largest generation of young people and I place great hope in their power to shape our future. We have been talking about creating jobs for the youth; let us be the ones creating those jobs, one at a time,” Ms Mwangi added.
