The Government has lauded the overwhelming response that National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) project had received with over two million applications.
Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development Principal Secretary (PS) Susan Mang’eni said though their target was to assist 100, 000 youths with Sh. 50, 000 business support grants, the data indicated high interest among people in doing business.
“As a government we are happy and very much committed with that show of interest that has emerged from our young people and we will continue to come up with initiatives to support their ideas,” she said.
Speaking to successful applicants who are undergoing training in Mbeere North Constituency, Embu County on Monday, the PS affirmed government resolve to champion creation of employment for the youth through enterprise development.
The PS said that Nyota project was one of the measures the government had put in place to promote employment creation for the young people.
She said though many of the applicants did not make the cut, all was not lost as there were other initiatives put in place to assist them including Uwezo Fund, Youth Enterprise Fund and Women Enterprise Fund that are all geared towards self-employment.
“We have an entire ecosystem of other initiatives in the Ministry to support those that were not successful and we will use the data we have gotten from Nyota Project to reach out to them,” she said.
She said they will look for ways to organize them around emerging opportunities as they also explore ways of reorganizing some of those other funds around the Nyota Model as it had proven to be more responsive into the entrepreneurial needs of the young people.
Meanwhile, PS Mang’eni announced plans to disburse Nyota funds to additional 25 counties in the Rift Valley, Nyanza and Eastern Regions.
She said they will commence training in the last batch of the counties towards the end of this week followed by disbursements of the grants to the beneficiaries.
She reported that so far, they had disbursed the first installment of Sh. 25, 000 to 12, 155 young people in Western Counties of Busia, Bungoma, Kakamega and Vihiga when the disbursement was launched earlier this month.
by Samuel Waititu
