KCB chief executive Joshua Oigara during the launch of the bank’s Youth Empowerment Programme at Kasarani Safaricom Gymnasium on March 9, 2016. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE
What you need to know:
KCB expects to trigger 2.5 million new jobs through the 2Jiajiri programme that aims to build local skills among artisans and ease their access to capital.
KCB Group has launched a Sh10 billion-a-year scholarship scheme to benefit 500,000 small-scale entrepreneurs over the next five years in sectors like construction, beauty, hospitality, agriculture and mechanics.
The bank, through its foundation, expects to trigger 2.5 million new jobs through the 2Jiajiri programme that aims to build local skills among artisans and ease their access to capital.
Most informal sector traders in Kenya are unregistered, a position that makes commercial banks reluctant to offer them loans due to high default risk.
“This programme will provide beneficiaries with vocational and enterprise skills necessary to drive employment and wealth creation in the identified fields,” KCB chief executive Joshua Oigara said Wednesday during the launch in Nairobi.
This is set to ease the pain of unemployment especially among the youth.
A World Bank report released on Tuesday puts unemployment among Kenya’s youth at 17.3 per cent compared to six per cent for both Uganda and Tanzania.
In the training scheme, some 100,000 entrepreneurs will annually attend short-term courses of between three and six months at vocational institutions across the country paid for by KCB.
They will, thereafter, be attached to companies with whom the bank has partnered to offer on-the-job training, including Toyota Kenya, Naivas Supermarket, Chandaria Industries and East African Portland Cement.
Graduates will be eligible for loans to expand or start their businesses, removing a major hurdle along their growth path.
Mr Oigara said participants will have to apply for the scholarships at the bank’s branches across the country.
Kenya’s informal sector employs over 80 per cent of the workforce but contributes only 18 per cent of the gross domestic product, according to the Micro and Small Enterprise Authority, the sector regulator.
The sector provided 693,400 new jobs in 2014, official data shows.
At Sh10 billion, KCB’s annual spending on the training scheme is slightly more than half its net annual profit for 2015.
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