The Government of Kenya has launched a 15B business competition for youths dubbed ‘MbeleNaBiz’ that will see a total of 75o youths benefit from the kitty.
Trade and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya who unveiled the business competition kitty send a stern warning to those involved on any favoritism.
According to Munya, 500 of the successful applicants will each receive Sh900,000 while the remaining 250 will get Sh3.6 million.
Munya said that he expected the process of determining the 750 winners in the MbeleNaBiz National Youth Business Competition would be transparent and professional.
“We don’t expect any funny games,” said Munya of the selection process of the competition of the initiative that the Government hopes will help dent the youth unemployment crisis in the country.
The implementation of the project is being done by audit firm KPMG.
The World Bank, the main financiers of the initiative, insisted the process would go through a “rigorous” impact evaluation with the selected businesses evaluated on a regular basis.
The aim of the project is to expand new and existing youth-led enterprises by providing them with funding and business plan training.The project, according to Jaramillo, does not target youth unemployment directly but through entrepreneurship.
Official figures show more than 85 per cent of those who are unemployed in the country are aged below 35 years, the age category that the competition targets.
The largest unemployment rate- strictly defined as those not working, available and looking for work- is in the age category of between and 20 and 24 years, at 19.2 per cent compared the national unemployment rate of seven per cent.