Innovation key to fire up Kenya’s Big Four Agenda

In the last decade, youth unemployment has been rising and a static economic growth.

Indeed, recent data from the Ministry of Education indicate that of the 1 million young people entering the job market from universities and colleges every year, only one out of five is likely to get a job in the formal sector.

“The lack of skills affects fresh graduates’ ability to do business in their area of study. Also, those already in business need further skills so that they can manage their businesses meaningfully,” Engineer. Mr. James Mwangi adds.

Mr. Mwangi says, tackling youth unemployment goes beyond skills training, and will require strategic partnerships in research and training between universities, colleges and local manufacturers, and grants and incentives to spur youth entrepreneurship.

Youth unemployment, estimated at 70 per cent, requires joint interventions by the government and the private sector.

“Most of the government’s projects, objectives and targets should focus on the youth,” said Mr. Mwangi, “This will ensure that the benefits of growth reach the youth to help alleviate poverty,” she added.

The more than 500 youth leaders from the 47 counties identified unemployment as a huge challenge, deeply rooted in corruption, which is slowly destroying their future, “when opportunities for the youth are channeled elsewhere, and when jobs are withheld because of the tribal factor”.

Mr. Mwangi explained that during the 2016/2017 electioneering period, most private companies were forced to reduce staff.

“Others closed down their operations, resulting in job losses. In addition, local manufacturers passed on to consumers the burden of higher input costs due to surging power bills, transportation costs, currency volatility, raw material shortages and inflation,” he explained.

Consequently, it is difficult for local manufacturers to compete effectively with imported goods that retail at lower prices.

“This makes it hard for private companies to create new jobs,” Mr. Mwangi said.

It reduced the political tension, which had made investors apprehensive. But three months later, the youth have yet to feel its impact.

Renewed investor confidence

While many saw the handshake basically as a political move, it seems to have jump-started business.

The renewed investor confidence and the government’s move to repeal the capping of interest rates will undoubtedly drive youth entrepreneurship. Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has noted that the capping of interest rates reduced access to credit, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), viewed as high-risk borrowers.

“When young entrepreneurs are viewed as high-risk borrowers, it works against their socio-economic development,” noted Mr. Mwangi.

In addition, SMEs are the engine that drives Kenya’s economic terrain and provide the highest number of jobs for the youth.

The convention also noted that the counties offer great economic potential for young people.

“Counties are the emerging economic power blocs, and the government should tap into public-private partnerships to accelerate devolution and open up the interior of the counties for economic development opportunities,” said Mr. Mwangi, Chief Executive, and Kurrent Technology. “This will position Kenya strategically,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mwangi noted that the dwindling job opportunities in Kenya have pushed a huge population of the youth into informal settlements, where they are marginalised.

According to Mr. Mwangi, the poorest in Kenya are young people, who have no jobs, housing, or source of livelihood.

“They lack access to clean water, sleep in open parks and struggle to raise Sh1, 000 rent,” he said.

The study noted that rural-urban migration and population growth rates in cities are the major causes of the proliferation of informal settlements in Africa.

A 2017 AMADPOC study conducted throughout Kenya established that, given the high population growth rate, the number of young people is increasing by the day.

“In Kenya’s population pyramid, the bottom is heavily overloaded, yet the number of people at the top is very few, making it very light,” said Eng Mwangi said.

He noted that Kenyans have high dependency rates, which has fuelled a spending culture among young people, leaving them little to save, condemning the youth to early poverty.

 

“The situation calls for sustainable development models that address not only poverty alleviation, but also drastically eliminate inequalities such as lack of access to business financing, and inadequate education, training and employment opportunities, challenges that further aggravate the cycle of poverty among the youth,” said Mwangi.

Mr. Mwangi noted that including the youth in governance is crucial to them and the country’s development.

He said the voice of the youth in leadership and governance, is weak, has inadequate resources and lacks the support of the youth.

While reading 2018/2019 budget, Treasury boss Rotich said that the government will merge the Uwezo Fund, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) and the Women Enterprise Development Fund to form the Biashara Kenya Fund, which will drive enterprise development.

The “Big Four” economic blueprint was seen as the new development vehicle that, if implemented without corruption, would re-ignite the livelihoods of young people in Kenya.

He pointed out that if the government creates opportunities for the youth in the “Big Four 4 Agenda”, Kenya would tap into the creativity and innovation of this huge group.

He has appealed to the president through his membership at the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) to ensure that the “Big Four” delivers decent jobs for the youth and addresses the inequalities in access to education, health, housing, health services and jobs.