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Catalysing jobs for East Africa’s rising youth population
A fashion designer at work. Through its investments and partnerships in textiles and apparels, Ms Mulili says that Msingi East Africa is seeking to create 80,000 jobs over the next five years. It also expects to create another 40,000 from aquaculture. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK
Poverty and inequality of opportunity are the two economic challenges that plague many a family in East Africa, a region with a growing youthful population that remains largely outside the formal economy and who face an uphill task not only in finding a job, but also in deriving value from every shilling that they earn.
Every year in Kenya alone, over one million young people leave secondary school, yet the economy creates on average less than 80,000 formal jobs. That means these young people have little or no chance to compete for openings in the formal sector considering that for every one million KCSE candidates, there are about 75,000 university graduates.
