MKU earmarks Sh40 million to fund graduates business ideas

One hundred alumni of the Mount Kenya University (MKU) will from next month benefit from a Sh40 million enterprise fund targeting scalable business ideas.

The fund, which is being implemented by MKU’s Graduate Enterprise Academy, will give priority to ideas that can easily be commercialised to create jobs.

MKU chairman Simon Gicharu said successful applicants will be taken through a mentorship programme and later offered capital to execute their ideas.

“Vetting of the best ideas will be done by a team of internal and external experts while mentorship will be offered by renowned business moguls in the country,” he said.

Successful applicants will embark on three-month residential mentorship at MKU headquarters in Thika town.

The pioneer classes at the Academy comprise nine beneficiaries who graduated in 2014 and are now running successful businesses. Each individual was given a seed capital of Sh400,000.

Mr Gicharu said the enterprise kitty’s goal is to bridge the gap between knowledge generation and utilisation.

Aside from offering entrepreneurial training and mentorship, MKU Enterprise Academy will provide the relevant market linkages that can help the beneficiaries upscale their businesses to the next level.

Some of the business leaders incorporated in the Academy include Keroche Breweries chief executive Tabitha Karanja and Bidco Africa CEO Vimal Shah.

Mr Gicharu emphasised on the need for a secondary source of income through enterprise, aside from salaries drawn from employment.

Many universities in Kenya have turned into establishing enterprise and incubation centres in support of their alumni as job opportunities in Kenya shrink rendering fresh graduates jobless.

Kenyatta University‘s Chandaria Business Innovation and Incubation Centre (CBIIC) has capacity to assist 120 companies. The centre is currently incubating 66 start-ups.

KCA University established a Centre for Entrepreneurship in September 2009 to serve as a central resource for young entrepreneurs to scale up their innovations.

The University of Nairobi (UoN) hosts the C4D lab whose among its flagship activities is start-up acceleration, capacity building, prototyping and research.

Catholic University hosts the IBM Africa Lab, a tech hub keen on developing and deploying innovative IT applications to tackle challenges hampering economic growth in the continent such as traffic congestion, food insecurity and inefficiencies in public procurement.