Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has vowed to continue leading economic empowerment initiatives that target to improve the lives of Kenyans through expansion of their businesses and hustles.
Kindiki who was speaking on Tuesday during an empowerment event for small scale traders in Mathioya, Murang’a County, said that nothing would stop the government efforts to boost income of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
“We are not going to stop empowering small and medium enterprises; we will continue doing it because we want to empower those at the bottom of the economy; that is the bottom transformation agenda we are pursuing,” he said.
The DP affirmed that the initiatives were complementing other empowerment programmes that include the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) and Kenya Jobs for Economic Transformations (KJET) which were aimed at providing financial support to small and medium sized businesses at the grassroots.
“NYOTA will provide Sh50, 000 in grants to 70 small scale businesses in each of the 1450 wards on top of mentorship support to ensure success as they expand and create more job opportunities,” he explained.
“This is the bottom-up transformation we promised in our manifesto, it is at the centre of the nation’s economic empowerment.” he added
Meanwhile, the DP assured residents that the government would complete all 23 modern markets in Murang’a in a bid to ensure small-scale traders enjoy a conducive business environment.
“The government is keen on keeping an eye on agriculture to ensure continuous enhancement of prices of tea, coffee, milk, avocados and other agricultural value chains to improve the livelihoods of all Kenyans,” he said
To that effect, the DP encouraged small scale traders and farmers to form cooperatives and SACCOs so as to reap maximum impact of government initiatives
Other key projects in the county include roads and electricity connection that will also be completed as promised.
“Currently the government is implementing a Sh1.2B last mile connectivity programme to ensure that an additional 16,000 households are connected to electricity across all constituencies in Murang’a County,” he added.
The event saw aggregation, sensitization and economic empowerment of 90 cooperatives and Saccos for micro and small scale traders and farmers in Mathioya constituency.
Other leaders present included Mathioya MP Edwin Mugo, the County Women Representative Betty Maina, Maragua MP Mary Wamaua and her Kangema counterpart Peter Kihungi, Garissa Women Rep Udgood Sayid among others.
By Purity Mugo and Florence Kinyua
