Economy

Private sector eyes 5m jobs in five-year enterprise plan

kepsa

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua addresses guests during the Kenya Private Sector Association (Kepsa) launch of the Kenya Youth Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program on October 31, 2022. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NMG

The private sector has launched a new plan to create five million jobs by 2027 in an effort to deal with the unemployment crisis facing Kenya’s youthful population.

The new plan championed by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) will benefit youth from various job opportunities in the underserved sectors.

Kepsa says it will scale up small enterprises through the Kenya Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program (K-YEEAP) by unlocking financing, access to markets, business coaching and mentorship.

Kepsa CEO Carole Kariuki notes the accelerator programme launched by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua will pursue relevant and market-oriented skills for industry transformation by closely collaborating with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem to ensure they meet their objectives.

“The main goal of Kepsa is to encourage economic development and job creation in Kenya. This initiative aims to address barriers to youth employment such as demand and absorption capacity creation, given the dual challenges of a growing youth bulge and the systemic bottlenecks that youth face when entering the labour market,” said Ms Kariuki.

Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that more than 800,000 young Kenyans enter the labour market every year from universities and other tertiary institutions.

The project will also support the digital transformation of small businesses, increase digital and digitally-enabled job opportunities for young people as well as public sector digital transformation for efficient service delivery and job creation as it works towards transforming the economy.

The Kenya Population and Housing Census Report (2019) indicates that youth unemployment in the country stands at 38.9 percent with about 5.3 million youth unable to secure decent jobs.

The program also aims to support the growth of 200,000 small businesses while catalyzing the development of 10,000 start-ups through the creation of 47 County Business Hubs.

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