by agriprofocus kenya

18
Scan: Status of Youth in Agribusiness in Nakuru County Initiatives, Intervention and Opportunities Supporting Youth in Agribusiness By AgriProFocus Kenya

Upload: others

Post on 31-Dec-2021

4 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: By AgriProFocus Kenya

Scan: Status of Youth in Agribusiness in Nakuru County

Initiatives, Intervention and Opportunities Supporting Youth in

Agribusiness

By AgriProFocus Kenya

Page 2: By AgriProFocus Kenya

Table of Contents

List of Acronyms 1

1.0 General Background 2

1.1 Situation Analysis: Nakuru County 3

2.0 Key Insights: Youth in Agribusiness, Nakuru County 5

2.1 County Government policies on Youth in Agribusiness 5

2.2 Programmes and Stakeholder groups supporting Youth in Agribusiness 5

2.3 Donors Landscape 8

2.4 Challenges in Projects Implementation 9

3.0 Opportunities for Multi stakeholder Collaboration 10

List of the Key informants 17

Page 3: By AgriProFocus Kenya

1

List of Acronyms

AfDB African Development Bank

AGLEAD Agri Enterprise Incubation for Improved Livelihoods and Economic Development

BEACON Building Eastern Africa Community Network

BEST Basic Entry Skills Training

CAP-YEI CAP- Youth Empowerment Institute Kenya

CARP+ Community Action Research Programme plus

CESSAM Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management

CIDP County Integrated Development Plan

CoELIB Centre of Excellence for Livestock Innovation and Business

CRAL Climate Resilience Adaptation Livelihoods

CTA Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation

EPTF Economic Projects Transformational Facility

HAS HAS University of Applied Sciences

HIVOS Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

KYEOP Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project

NITA National Industrial Training Authority

NPCK National Potato Council of Kenya

NUFFIC Dutch Organization for Internationalization in Education

NYP National Youth Policy

PVC Potato Value Chain

RUFORUM Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture

SD4ALL Sustainable Diets for All

SME Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

TAGDev

Transforming African Agricultural Universities to meaningfully contribute to Africa’s Growth and Development

Page 4: By AgriProFocus Kenya

2

1.0 General Background

The population of youth aged 15-34 in Kenya is 16,804,894; this population however expected

to increase by 6 million to 22,841,307 by 20301. The Institute of Economic Affairs in its Youth

Fact Book 20102 on the other hand foresees a shift to a concentration of 15 to 34 year olds,

transitioning Kenya from a “child-rich” nation to a “youthful” population. Within this context,

the high rate of youth unemployment in Kenya remains a critical concern since there will be

more young people who will require jobs and other gainful opportunities.

According to Economic Survey (2017)3, agriculture still remains the backbone of Kenya’s

economy, directly contributing 30% of the annual GDP and another 27% indirectly. The

Agriculture Sector Development Strategy (2010-2020)4 recognizes the potential of the youth in

developing agriculture and has a special focus on youth however, the sector is currently faced

by numerous challenges which include: effects of climate change that have greatly affected

farmers’ ability to plan their farming activities, lack of information on post-harvest handling,

high costs of production, limited use of modern practices and technology in agricultural

production and limited access to credit and market facilities.

Low involvement of youth in key decision making processes as well as their absence in policy

dialogues is a big challenge. The National Youth Policy (NYP)5 spells out the strategic areas that

must be addressed in order for Kenyan youth to effectively play their role in nation building has

not included the agricultural sector as one of the key sectors for youth engagement towards

addressing their fundamental issues and contribution to economic development. Furthermore,

the legislative framework supporting the implementation of the NYP worsens the situation by

excluding the agriculture sector into the mechanisms for supporting youth participation6. A

number of county governments are coming up with initiatives to implement Youth Policies by

putting in place modalities to engage youth in agri-businesses by partnering with the national

government and different development partners.

1 https://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/region.php

2 https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/07889.pdf

3 https://www.knbs.or.ke/download/economic-survey-highlights-2017/

4 Agriculture Sector Development Strategy (2010-2020), http://www.finland.or.ke/public/download.aspx?ID=107015&GUID=%7BCE7EA0C9-

18D4-41ED-B169-5AE7DAD3B6B5%7D 5 http://www.youthpolicy.org/national/Kenya_2006_National_Youth_Policy.pdf

6 http://extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/ken171450.pdf

Page 5: By AgriProFocus Kenya

3

1.1 Situation Analysis: Nakuru County

There has been an increasing countrywide momentum that recognizes the significance of

investing in youth as the next generation of food producers and dominant actors in sustainable

agriculture supply and value chains. Embu County Agriculture Department, for example, has

come up with initiatives to implement Youth Policy by putting in place modalities to engage the

youth in productive activities such as Youth in Modern Agriculture Projects and involvement in

agri-businesses in line with national youth policy. The county together with 4H Foundation

Kenya has developed The Embu County Youth in Agribusiness Strategy 2018-2022, launched in

February 28th 2019. The strategy aims at addressing county-specific challenges facing children

and youth between age group of six to 35 years. The 4-H Foundation Kenya was established in

2014 to complement the efforts of National and County governments as well as community

initiatives aimed at attracting young people to the agricultural sector. It was also started with

the aim of reviving the 4-K movement in Kenya. The name (4-H) represents four personal

development areas of focus for the movement: head, heart, hands, and health. The 4-H Kenya

is one of 73 independent country programmes committed to the Global 4-H Charter.

The population of Nakuru County has been rising in the last ten years. In 2009, the County

population was 1,602,637 and it is expected to rise to 2,400,367 in 2030 and 3,013,869 in 2050.

The proportion of the population below age 15 was 41.9 percent in 2009. It is projected to

reduce to 31.7 percent in 2030 and further decrease to 24.0 percent in 2050. The proportion of

the population aged 64 and above was 3.0 percent in 2009. It is projected to increase

marginally to 3.3 percent in 2030 and to increase further to 7.6 percent in 2050.

Nakuru County Demographic Dividend Indicators

Demographic Indicators 2009 2030 2050

Population Size 1,602,637 2,400,367 3,013,894

Proportion of Population Below Age 15 41.9 31.7 24.0

Proportion of Population Above Age 64 3.0 3.3 7.6

Proportion of Population in the Working Ages (15-

64)

55.2 65.0 68.4

Dependency Ratio 81.3 53.9 46.2

Year Demographic Window of Opportunity Opens 2035

The proportion of the population in the working ages between 15-64 years was 55.2 percent in

2009. It is projected that this age group will increase to 65 percent in 2030 and further increase

to 68.4 percent of the total population in 2050. The dependency ratio for Nakuru County was

Page 6: By AgriProFocus Kenya

4

81.3 in 2009 and is projected to decrease to 53.9 in 2030 decreasing further to 46.2 in 2050. It

is projected that the county demographic window of opportunity opens in the year 2035.7

The County government in its County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP, 2018-2022) has outlined strategies to involve the youth in all county programmes including agriculture. Key interventions to be implemented include: agriculture extension, research and training to improve the number of youth in farming as well as establishing linkages to access loan facilities from Uwezo Fund and Youth Enterprise Development Fund. The County has also envisioned to establish business incubation Centres in four sub-counties (Nakuru East, Bahati, Naivasha and Molo) with the partnership of the private sector so as to train and mentor youth and women with innovative business ideas and provision of SME loans to spur growth of the SMEs.8 This aligns well with the National government's initiatives to address youth involvement in agriculture as per the Youth in Agribusiness Strategy, 2017-2021.

As a multistakeholder network with interest in promoting youth in agribusiness, AgriProFocus Kenya undertook a scan in Nakuru County to:

Get insights on various stakeholders who have a focus on youth in agribusiness in the County

Understand the interventions that have been designed to support youth in agribusiness in Nakuru County.

Provide insights on the donors supporting youth in agribusiness interventions in Nakuru County

The following chapters outline inclusiveness and sustainability of different interventions

supporting youth in agribusiness in Nakuru County and an overview of the donors and

implementing organizations.

7 http://www.ncpd.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Nakuru-County-Adolescents-and-Youth-Survey-NAYS.pdf

8 https://nakuru.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/NAKURU-COUNTY-CIDP-2018-2022-FINAL..pdf

‘Young people form the most populous age-group in our county, thereby involving them in turn

key agricultural initiatives will not only make farming lucrative but also create job opportunities

for them’

Dr. Immaculate Njuthe Maina, CEC Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries,

Nakuru County.

https://nakuru.go.ke/7855/

Page 7: By AgriProFocus Kenya

5

2.0 Key Insights: Youth in Agribusiness, Nakuru County

The following section provides insights from the scan based on the four objectives:

1. County policies that exist in Nakuru County and how they are implemented- with specific focus Youth in agriculture, the gaps and extent at which Kenya Youth in Agribusiness Strategy has been cascaded and adopted.

2. Programmes/ Projects focusing on Youth in Agribusiness, priority areas, interventions and the stakeholder groups involved

3. Donors investing in Youth in agribusiness space 4. Opportunities for multi-stakeholder collaboration to support Youth in Agribusiness in

Nakuru County

2.1 County Government policies on Youth in Agribusiness

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Gender is responsible for youth affairs unfortunately, there is no close coordination and partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture on how to better support youth engagement in agriculture as this is critical and requires commitment from the two ministries.

The County Government of Nakuru does not have a functional directorate of youth affairs responsible for youth affairs however, there is an executive order from the Office of the Governor to The Ministry of Youth, Gender, Culture, Sports and Social Services to establish the Directorate of Youth Affairs, which is currently ongoing. The acting Director of Youth affairs is developing systems, legal frameworks for drafting bills and policies, schemes of service and budget for staff to support the directorate furthermore, it is still unclear how the National government plans to work with Nakuru County Government to implement the Youth in Agribusiness strategy.

2.2 Programmes and Stakeholder groups supporting Youth in Agribusiness

A number of organizations and programmes aimed at accelerating economic growth through

agri-food sector development and improvement of employment opportunities with special

focus on the youth are active in Nakuru County. Some of these institutions/organisations

include: Egerton University, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA),

Ustadi, Ongoza, HIVOS, Equity Bank Foundation, Balloon Ventures and the Economic Projects

Transformational Facility [EPTF]. These organizations implement different programmes but with

same or related approaches and interventions.

Page 8: By AgriProFocus Kenya

6

Egerton University is implementing four different projects all related to youth in agribusiness

and entrepreneurship. Centre of Excellence for Livestock Innovation and Business [CoELIB] was

established with support from the Dutch Organization for Internationalization in Education

(NUFFIC) by the Netherlands Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Centre

offers offices and spaces for innovation by entrepreneurs, agribusiness incubation, business and

market development. The Centre has a zero grazing, poultry unit, feed processing unit, genetic

and microbiology laboratory, goat improvement centre and apiculture production unit. These

units are used for practical training and as income generating units for the Centre. The project

is implemented in partnership with Q-Point, HAS University, Maastricht School of Management,

DLV Advies- all from The Netherlands and Growth Africa. CoELIB has graduated one cohort of

13 entrepreneurs in 2018, and recruitment for second cohort for 2019 is ongoing.

The MasterCard Foundation in partnership with RUFORUM, Egerton University, Kenya and Gulu

University, Uganda are implementing Transforming African Agricultural Universities to

meaningfully contribute to Africa’s Growth and Development (TAGDev); a project that aims to

train competent youth through creating new models of agricultural education,

agribusiness/entrepreneurship and engage policy makers to influence policies in agricultural

training. This is implemented through: Empowering Kenyan youth through Agri Enterprise

Incubation for Improved Livelihoods and Economic Development (AGLEAD ) and Community

Action Research Programme Plus (CARP+), both programmes are under TAGDev.

AGLEAD has collaborated with KCB Bank and Farming systems Kenya to implement provision of

commercial loans, training on entrepreneurship and incubation interventions and networking

for collaboration with the private sector. Farming Systems Kenya provide link to farmer groups

and the industry while KCB Bank, Egerton University branch facilitates training in financing and

financial management. CARP+ implements action research in potato value chain (PVC) in

Nakuru County with the aim of transforming it into a vibrant commercialized sub-sector for

improved income and livelihoods as well as build research and skills capacity for students and

support incubation of business ideas along the PVC. CARP+ partners include Baraka Agricultural

College, Mtakatifu Clara Training and Development Centre, National Potato Council of Kenya

and the County directorate of Agriculture.

Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management (CESSAM) is

funded by World Bank through the Government of Kenya and is modelled to support

innovations in product development, funding prototypes and commercialization, offering loans

at zero interest rates, incubation and business development, internship programmes in agri-

enterprises and creating awareness on entrepreneurship through seminars and short courses.

The programme collaborates with other programmes within the University for instance,

(TAGDev and AGLEAD).

Page 9: By AgriProFocus Kenya

7

Development organizations implementing projects in or related to youth in agribusiness

include: CTA, Ustadi, HIVOS, Balloon Ventures and Ongoza. CTA in partnership with USTADI with

funds from IFAD are implementing Youth Economic Empowerment through Agribusiness

dubbed Vijabiz in Nakuru and Kilifi counties. The project aims to create sustainable

employment for the rural youth in the counties by building entrepreneurship capacity with

incubation, creating market linkages and added value for rural youth groups, (with at least 30%

women inclusion) in cereals, dairy and fisheries value chains. The project has selected 165

youth groups from the two counties (115 from Nakuru and 50 from Kilifi). The project focuses

on skills and capacity building, enterprise development, linkage to market and competitive

grants to be given to the groups in the selected value chains.

HIVOS together with Building Eastern Africa Community Network (BEACON) with support from

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs are also implementing Sustainable Diets for All (SD4ALL). The

programme focuses on building capacity of civil society organizations, empowering citizens and

fostering changes in policies and practices; although this project targets all age groups, it has a

strong component on youth inclusion.

Ongoza provides business acceleration to early stage high growth young entrepreneurs in

Nakuru County through customized one-on-one business coaching, advisory and planning,

market linkages and access to debt financing for growth through networking and linkages. CAP-

Youth Empowerment Institute Kenya [YEI] is implementing Basic Entry Skills Training (BEST) and

one of its training Centres is in Nakuru County. The programme focuses on capacity building on

life skills, relevant labor market skills, savings education and small business development.

In addition to involvement in implementation of projects, the government through the relevant

ministries is also implementing some programmes. The Ministry of Public Service, Youth and

Gender Affairs (MPYG) in partnership with NITA with funding from the World Bank are

implementing Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP) aimed at supporting

skills development and strengthening the development of youth policies.

The Ministry of Agriculture is also implementing the Youth ENABLE programme which focuses

on providing Access to land and financial services for youth agribusiness ventures and

upgrading of Youth Agribusiness Incubation Centres (YABICs and Financing Youth

Agribusinesses through operationalizing risk sharing & financing mechanisms).

Balloon Ventures is a social enterprise that offers out-of-building incubation, growth focused

finance and acceleration in agribusiness, processing and manufacturing. The enterprise finances

businesses in form of loans, revenue share and equity for sustainability. Economic Projects

Transformation Facility (EPTF) on the other hand promotes entrepreneurship development

through training, mentorship and business development support services [BDSS] by building

sustainable structures in businesses. EPTF has partnered with Starlight cooperative to

Page 10: By AgriProFocus Kenya

8

implement Climate Resilience Adaptation Livelihoods (CRAL). CRAL focuses on women, youth

and people with disabilities. This project seeks to demonstrate relevant adaptive measures,

approaches and interventions that will contribute towards building resilience of vulnerable

communities in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem, reducing their vulnerabilities to climatic

shocks and securing employment opportunities, food and income.

Summary of interventions in the programmes

2.3 Donors Landscape

The donor community is playing a big role in supporting youth in agribusiness. A number of

donors either work with academic institutions (Egerton University) and local implementing

NGOs through sub-granting.

RUFORUM has invested USD. 50,000 to Egerton University for the (AGLEAD) for 4 years to

facilitate agribusiness growth and incubation facilities. The same donor has partnered with

MasterCard foundation to fund the same University and Gulu University in Uganda with USD

6.7M to implement TAGDev. The MasterCard Foundation has also supported CAP- Youth

Empowerment Institute Kenya [YEI] with USD. 10.5 million to implement Best entry skills

training in the Coastal, Central, Rift-valley and Nyanza regions.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs through the Dutch Organization for Internationalization in

Education (NUFFIC) presently known as Orange Knowledge Programmes (OKP) has invested

€1.3 M to equip facilities, build capacity of CoELIB Centre, its staff and develop incubation and

acceleration programmes at Egerton University for four years. World Bank through the

Government of Kenya has pumped in USD. 6M for the development of the Centre of Excellence

Training and capacity

Building

Training on

entrepreneurship and

farming as a business

Incubation, Business

Development and

acceleration

Good Farm Practices

training (GFP)

Access to

resources

Financing

through

investments

Financing

innovations and

prototypes

Networking and

Knowledge

management

Mentorship

Conferences

Policy

Formulation

and influence

Page 11: By AgriProFocus Kenya

9

in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management (CESSAM) for a period of five years.

The World Bank has also funded the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs

(MPYG) in partnership with NITA and other affiliated ministries to implement the Kenya Youth

Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP) across Kenya. Other donors who have invested

in Nakuru County are IFAD, CTA and USTADI to implement Vijabiz project. IFAD has contributed

USD 1.5 M while CTA and USTADI have contributed USD 352,000 and USD 166,000 respectively.

African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of Kenya have co-funded youth ENABLE

programme, with Ksh. 3 Billion and Ksh. 0.633 Billion respectively, to be implemented by the

Ministry of Agriculture across Kenya, while the UK government and Citi Foundation have

invested over Ksh. 50M to Balloon ventures to facilitate access to marketing, financial and

strategy expertise in Nakuru. Swedish Mission Council has funded the EPTF with Ksh. 12M to

implement CRAL project.

2.4 Challenges in Projects Implementation

The performance of programmes supporting youth in agribusiness has been encouraging in a

number of interventions, most notably in training, incubation and business development and is

on a trajectory of further development however, stakeholders need to identify some of the

serious ongoing challenges in the implementation of these initiatives to further exploit the

potential of youth to transform the agri-food sector.

The most important challenges can be grouped into two: Project implementation related and

youth demographic related.

Projects implementation

challenges

Poor visibility of projects and

institutions. The youth do not

know the existence of these

programmes aimed at

supporting them

Inadequate financing for implementation of various interventions

Issues of practicality in training courses

Youth demographic challenges

Pre-existing mindset: The youth do not have an open mind and do not understand the value of support services in their businesses, get-rich-quickly attitude leading to lack of patience in growth.

Lack of commitment in terms of time and payments for incubation and business development services

Page 12: By AgriProFocus Kenya

10

3.0 Opportunities for Multi stakeholder Collaboration

The National and County government, donor organizations and academic institutions are keen

to investing in initiatives that encourage and support youth in agribusiness leading to an

increase in youth-agribusiness-entrepreneurship related projects which attract huge funds.

Capacity building (Training on entrepreneurship, technical and soft skills) and incubation are the

central intervention areas for most programmes in Nakuru County. Other programs

supplement capacity building component with financial support, which helps young people to

start their own agribusiness or invest in inputs and equipment. This has led to duplication of

approaches and interventions in the same areas instead of complementing for instance, the

development of several hubs/incubation centres for training and similar training programmes.

This calls for collaboration between different stakeholders in the Youth in Agribusiness space

to:

- Create a multi-stakeholder platform or ecosystem to avoid duplication of efforts and

Business-as-usual approaches. This will create a path for linkage to opportunities

partnerships and pooling resources. The county government should instead partner with

existing incubators instead of investing in establishing one.

- Create intense awareness of the existing programmes and organizations that support

youth in agribusiness with trendsetters and successful cases. This will make the youth to

be aware of existing programmes and how this is beneficial to them

- Influence and support the new directorate of youth affairs to develop policies specific to

the youth in the county. Trendsetters, scaling and successful youths and groups should

be involved to give their opinions through a non-political engagement.

- Involve People with Disabilities in all youth projects

Page 13: By AgriProFocus Kenya

11

Overview of initiatives supporting Youth in Agribusiness in Nakuru County This section provides a brief overview of some of the initiatives by various organizations that are currently supporting youth in agribusiness in Nakuru county.

Name of organization/ Project

Youth in Agribusiness Intervention Describe the intervention, focus areas of the intervention and donor

Contact/Website Period

CESSAM (Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management)

Project: CESAAM contributes to sustainable agricultural and agribusiness management through capacity development, research and technology transfer for enhanced food security. Focus areas: Capacity Building, research on biotechnology and climate-smart agricultural practices, incubation and technological innovations, developing evidence based policy briefs and dissemination. Donor: World Bank, through GoK

Dickson Otieno 0725809214 http://www.cesaamegerton.org/

2017-2022

AGLEAD Project: Empowering Kenyan youth through Agri-enterprise Incubation for Improved Livelihoods and Economic Development .The hub supports the development of well-structured agribusiness projects, and providing commercial loans and other support such as, market access, capacity development, risk management, and networking- to enhance collaboration between the university and the private sector. Focus areas: Incubation, market access, training, financing Donor: RUFFORUM Budget: USD 50,000 Collaboration: Farming Systems-Kenya, KCB Bank

Prof. Patience M. Mshenga Tel: +254 722 361991 Email: [email protected] [email protected]

2018-2022

Page 14: By AgriProFocus Kenya

12

TAGDEV Project: Transforming African Agricultural Universities to meaningfully contribute to Africa’s growth and development (TAGDev) Donor: The MasterCard Foundation in partnership with Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) Focus: Training competent and highly skilled African youth and develop the capacity of African universities to effectively train and nurture graduates with relevant skills match. This aims to transform African agricultural universities and their graduates to better respond to developmental challenges through enhanced application of science, technology, business and innovation for rural agricultural transformation.

Prof. Patience M. Mshenga Tel: +254 722 361991 Email: [email protected] [email protected]

CTA/ USTADI Project Name: Youth Economic Empowerment through Agribusiness in Kenya (Vijabiz) The project is a collaboration between USTADI and CTA and strives to create sustainable youth-led enterprises through collaboration with innovative financial service providers, creating market linkages, integrating innovatively digital technologies and enhancing business management capacity. Support is provided to value addition, as well as opportunities for scaling-up. Donor: IFAD, CTA and USTADI Focus: Capacity development on entrepreneurship, leadership, ICT and social media, Market linkages, Incubation Target group: 165 rural youth groups (30% females) in cereals, dairy and fisheries value chains

ustadi.org Head of Programmes Eric Bosire [email protected] 0713271065/0725110579

2018-2020

Page 15: By AgriProFocus Kenya

13

HIVOS, implemented by Building Eastern Africa Community Network (BEACON)

Project Name: Sustainable Diets for All (SD4ALL) The main goal of the programme is to work with citizens and partner organizations to influence policies, market practices, government actors and international institutions (at global level) to promote diets which are diverse, healthy, fair and green. Focus areas: The programme focuses on building capacity of civil society organizations, empowering citizens and civil society organizations and fostering changes in policies and practices. Donor: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ann Majani [email protected]

2018-2020

ENABLE Youth Project

The government through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries State Department of Agriculture is implementing the Enable Youth Kenya program. The specific objective of the ENABLE Youth Kenya is to create business opportunities and decent employment for young women and men along priority agricultural value chains through the provision of entrepreneurship skills, funding and business linkages Donor: Africa Development Bank Program Focus: Establishing an enabling Environment for Youth Empowerment in Agribusiness through: Awareness creation and promotion of agriculture as a business; Providing Access to land and financial services for youth agribusiness ventures; Upgrading of Youth Agribusiness Incubation Centres (YABICs). Entrepreneurship and agribusiness incubation: through promoting Agribusiness Incubation and Acceleration Activities; Supporting Business plans and loan applications, Financing Youth Agribusinesses through operationalizing risk sharing & financing mechanism (RSFM) Budget: Ksh. 3.6 B. AfDB: 3B, GoK: 0.6B

Benson Nyariaro, Project Coordinator-Youth in Agribusiness Programme [email protected]

Page 16: By AgriProFocus Kenya

14

Ongoza A social enterprise supporting young people - 35years and below. Ongoza provides business acceleration to early stage high growth young entrepreneurs in Kenya through customized business coaching, advisory and planning, market linkages and access to debt financing for growth through networking and linkages. Funded through philanthropic sources, Ongoza is able to offer entrepreneurs access to business advisory services at subsidized rates

Virginia Gitome 0701163818, [email protected] Business Development Advisor

KCB Bank KCB Foundation 2Jiajiri programme is a capacity building programme that is targeting to empower and equip unemployed and out-of-school youth to grow micro enterprises by providing them with technical skill training opportunities as well as up-skilling and certifying existing micro-entrepreneurs who wish to move their business from the informal to the formal sector. The programme offers: - Provision of technical skills scholarships for out of school youth aged 18-35 years (up skilling) and existing micro entrepreneurs (skilling) - Business development services and discounted asset and capital financing for the graduates of the skilling programme - Provision of market and industry linkages

Roselyn Mbugua Branch Manager-Egerton University [email protected] [email protected] 0722285860

Safaricom Blaze Safaricom has established a platform – BLAZE Be Your Own Boss [BYOB] a youth network to support young people excel in business through mentorship summits, expert talks, training boot camps and the opportunity to compete in the BYOB show which comes with a cash prize to boost winning business ideas to growth and business support form BLAZE. Important to note is that Safaricom has also developed a platform Digifarm that is looking at linking farmers to other service providers including quality input suppliers, access to

Mike Akal [email protected]

Page 17: By AgriProFocus Kenya

15

finance and markets.

Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP)

Project: Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP). KYEOP is implemented by the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs (MPYG) in partnership with NITA and other affiliated ministries. Target: Youth aged 18-29 years with some components extending the limit to 35 years. The project targets both rural and urban youths. Focus areas: Skills development – life skills, business skills, job placements /internships, apprenticeship, information sharing with regards to labour market information and strengthening of the development of youth policies. Donor: World Bank

Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs (MPYG), Nakuru County [email protected] 0793060440 / 0793060444

2016 – 2021

CAP- Youth Empowerment Institute Kenya [YEI]

Project: Basic Entry skills training(BEST) Focus areas: Training and capacity Building Donor: MasterCard Foundation Budget: USD 10.5 million

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (CAP YEI) [email protected] 0718188926

Vijana Reloaded, SNV, Soilcares

Programme: AgriVijana has been created in partnership with SNV and Soilcares. Vijana Reloaded offers courses for youth to realize their own business ideas, courses to replicate way to go business models, master classes, marketplace events, linkage to finance and providence of finance through networks. The company uses human centered technology in terms of trainings and through this they discovered that most youth are willing to do much, but they are not empowered. They have designed a six months training programme in six locations where a young entrepreneur can come in with an idea and be helped to develop an effective pitch that will

Ronald Mukanga [email protected] 254790486416

Page 18: By AgriProFocus Kenya

16

attract funding

Economic Projects Transformation Facility(EPTF)

EPTF takes a comprehensive and integrative approach to promoting entrepreneurship development and has adopted a two-fold approach that involves training and business development support services [BDSS]. EPTF’s entrepreneurship training addresses unemployment and poverty by supporting the creation and expansion of business enterprises. The training seeks to challenge existing mind-sets of many young people who believe that formal employment is the only way to generate income.

Programmes coordinator Anthony Waweru [email protected] 0721991281

Balloon Ventures A social enterprise that offers out-of - building incubation, growth focused finance at 0% interest and acceleration(Multi-stage support)

Keter Kibet [email protected] 0722235012

2018-2021

Ministry of Youth, Gender, Culture, Sports and Social Services

The new Directorate of Youth Affairs, County Government of Nakuru is developing systems, legal frameworks for drafting bills and policies, schemes of service and budget for staff to support youth affairs in the county

Claire Obora [email protected] 0722211341