Letters

LETERS: It’s time to nurture our own young entrepreneurs

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Graduates queue for job interviews. FILE PHOTO | NMG

In the last United Nations General Assembly, President Uhuru Kenyatta was unanimously endorsed as the Global Champion of the Young People’s Agenda. The aim of this prestigious docket is to foster “global partnership through which the UN seeks to get every young person into quality education, training or employment by 2030.”

In his acceptance speech, Mr Kenyatta was clear about the need to educate and empower young people. Solidly, all the leaders affirmed that it was not possible to attain lasting peace and stability amid the widespread youth unemployment, especially in developing countries.

The speech by Mr Kenyatta was eye-opening and at the same time, it exposed the key failures of the Jubilee Government. In 2007, the rate of unemployment was 22.81 per cent and by 2017 this rate had risen by more than four per cent. In short, there are more unemployed youths, in current times, when compared to the government led by “oldies”.

It is ironical that the government that was elected on the promise of empowering young people has recorded the highest rate of unemployment. In 2014, Mr Kenyatta disclosed that the government was working to make it easy for the youth to win 30 per cent of all government contracts. In the same forum, the leader highlighted the major hurdles facing young Kenyans; inadequate knowledge and access to finances.

Armed with a vision to help young people, Mr Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, launched the Uwezo Fund in 2013. The aim of this fund was to propel young men and women into “the centre of national prosperity”.

During the event, the President affirmed that young people were “the greatest single asset the country has” and hence, the need to empower them for national development.

Unfortunately, the fund did not attain its intended objective and its leadership has been accused of corruption and favoritism. In March, this year, all the senior managers of the Youth Development Fund (YDF) were sent on a compulsory leave following irregular loan disbursements.

What’s more, Kenyan youth have been complaining about the small amounts that are allocated to large groups. In its defense, the government has lamented that young people have failed to secure funds from YDF. In any case, why should 15 young people create a group in order to get a Sh50,000 loan?

The youth fund was created before young people could be trained in managing businesses and seeking finances. This reminds me of the noble proverb of putting the cart before the horses. The intention is good but is the implementation right?

In recent times, this systematic failure has made YDF organise training sessions where young people are educated on key topics including entrepreneurship and social development. From the onset, what young people wanted was training and an enabling environment and not small handouts from the state.

This then leaves a begging question – would an entrepreneurship policy not be useful in Kenya? Do we have an entrepreneurship policy in Kenya?

According to Prof Henry Bwisa, an entrepreneurship policy consists of measures taken to stimulate entrepreneurship, which are aimed at the pre-start, the start-up and post-start-up phases of the entrepreneurial process, and are designed and delivered to address the areas of motivation, opportunity and skills with the primary objective of encouraging more people to start their own businesses.

The funds we have seen seem to be kneejerk reactions void of systematic direction and guidance and this could be our undoing.

In a parliamentary meeting, Senator Johnson Sakaja indicated that “one of the setbacks in efforts to turn around the fortunes of the youth is failure to adequately implement the existing laws.”

To this extent, the government has failed in supporting young entrepreneurs and ensuring that they create sustainable businesses that reduce the perennial problem of youth unemployment. Scott Peters prophetically affirmed: “Supporting the entrepreneurial spirit is our best chance of economic progress” and up to now it seems that the state has failed to note this.

Boniface Kimwere via email.