Hope at last for youth as Sh100bn fund set up

President Uhuru Kenyatta answers questions from the youth during the official Launch of the Mastercard Programme "Youth Africa Works Kenya" at Radisson Blu Hotel, Nairobi County. PHOTO | PSCU

By  AGEWA MAGUT

What you need to know:

  • The five-year programme is divided into three sections, namely enhancing technical and vocational education training, financing small businesses and entrepreneurs, and training the youth on use of digital technology to enhance the economy.

  • Those partners will also provide financial and digital literacy and entrepreneurship training to micro, small and medium enterprises to support owners to grow and sustain their businesses and to mentor other entrepreneurs in the network.

A fund targeting over Sh100 billion has been set up to train and help five million young people in Kenya to get jobs and start businesses, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.

Speaking during the launch of the MasterCard Foundation Africa Young Africa Works programme on Thursday in Nairobi, Mr Kenyatta said that the foundation has invested Sh30 billion in the project that aims at reducing unemployment rates of the youth in the country.

DIGITAL LITERACY

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The MasterCard Foundation will work in collaboration with Equity Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank to achieve this.

“Over the five-year period, MasterCard Foundation will provide Sh10 billion to KCB Group against their contribution of Sh50 billion and Sh7.2 billion to Equity Group against their contribution of Sh32 billion,” Mr Kenyatta said

He added that the partners will work together to create two million jobs in the next five years.

The five-year programme is divided into three sections, namely enhancing technical and vocational education training (TVET), financing small businesses and entrepreneurs, and training the youth on use of digital technology to enhance the economy.

Those partners will also provide financial and digital literacy and entrepreneurship training to micro, small and medium enterprises to support owners to grow and sustain their businesses and to mentor other entrepreneurs in the network.

“When small firms and entrepreneurs access financial services, they obtain the resources they require to grow, expand into new markets and opportunities, create jobs and establish inter-generational wealth,” Mr Kenyatta said.

CREATIVE SECTOR

President Kenyatta also added that his government has worked to formalise the informal sector in a bid to make business easier for the youth. He added that the problem facing many young people in the country is lack of skills.

“We are heavily investing in our TVET so that we can equip our people with the skills that they need,” Mr Kenyatta said.

Mr Kenyatta said he was convinced that changes to the education curriculum to the new competency based curriculum (CBC), which focuses on the individual child’s strengths and interests, will help advance the country’s economy through the creative sector.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha revealed that there are 17 million primary and secondary school children in the country. Also present were Cabinet Secretaries Amina Mohamed (Sports, Culture and Heritage), Joe Mucheru (ICT) and Prof Margaret Kobia (Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs).

The President also encouraged young people to seek success through hard work and to avoid a get-rich-quick mentality.

“Through hard work, through being upright … is how we will become successful. We have to remove this mentality that we need to make money quickly,” the President said.

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