Thousands of young people benefiting from the government’s NYOTA programme have been challenged to use the funds to build businesses that can create jobs and improve their livelihoods instead of spending the money on short-term needs.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe made the appeal during the NYOTA Business Grant disbursement for the Upper Coast Cluster, saying the programme is designed to help young people become entrepreneurs rather than job seekers.
Kagwe said Kenya’s youthful population remains one of the country’s greatest strengths, noting that nearly three-quarters of the country’s 57.5 million people are below the age of 35, while about 800,000 young Kenyans enter the job market every year.
With formal employment opportunities unable to absorb everyone, he said the government is increasingly shifting its focus towards supporting young people to start and grow businesses.
“Whereas the aim is to develop a new generation of entrepreneurs and employers that will provide opportunities for themselves and others,” he added.
The NYOTA program, which is backed by the World Bank Group, is designed to reach out to over 820,000 vulnerable and marginalized youth living in all the 1,450 wards across Kenya.
Apart from receiving business grants, the beneficiaries are taken through business development trainings, mentorship programs, financial literacy programs and employability training. They are connected to government procurement through AGPO program prior to obtaining the start-up capital.
As per Kagwe, the program has created overwhelming demand, with over 2.5 million applications from all over the country.
So far, about 121,800 young people have been identified to benefit from the program, where over 91,000 have undergone business development training and over 90,000 have been involved in the mentorship process. It has been stated that 96 percent of the youths that have benefited from the program have established businesses.
In the first phase of implementation, the government disbursed KSh2.281 billion through the Pochi la Biashara digital wallet to support youth-owned enterprises.
The second phase is now underway, with KSh3.055 billion set aside for 122,203 beneficiaries across the country.
Each beneficiary will receive KSh25,000, of which KSh3,000 will automatically be set aside as savings to encourage financial discipline and help young entrepreneurs build more resilient businesses.
The latest rollout includes 88,934 beneficiaries receiving a second tranche of funding and another 33,269 young people accessing the grants for the first time.
In the Upper Coast Cluster comprising of Kilifi, Tana River and Lamu counties, 4,828 youth entrepreneurs will benefit from an allocation of KSh120.7 million.
There are most beneficiaries in Kilifi County, who comprise of 2,798 young people benefiting from an amount of KSh69.95 million. This is followed by 1,222 youth in Tana River County getting KSh30.55 million while 808 youth in Lamu County benefit from an allocation of KSh20.2 million.
Kagwe encouraged the beneficiaries to use the funds as seed capital which will help them to start businesses that will sustain themselves well after the grant period has lapsed.
According to Kagwe, success will be a function of discipline, innovation and financial prudence, and even small businesses have the potential of developing into enterprises that will employ other young people.
CS repeated his commitment of continued investment in programmes that will enable young people to acquire skills and mentorship as well as access to capital, stressing that NYOTA is much more than a cash grant programme.
The CS said that it is a long term investment in a generation that will innovate and create wealth for Kenya.