The cosmetology start-up ecosystem in Nakuru County has received a major boost with the establishment of a Business Incubation and Innovation Centre, to help nurture entrepreneurial ideas among the youth in the area.
The initiative is a joint partnership between Rift Valley Institute of Business Studies (RVIBS), Emprotek Incubation Program, Dimeways and Step to Step Program.
The Rift Valley Institute of Business Studies Director John Kimemia, said they were working towards shifting focus on preparing their students to take-up roles in entrepreneurship rather than job seeking in an environment where youths were finding it hard to secure jobs.
The Director explained that RVIBS, was seeking public-private partnerships with financial institutions, donor and government agencies, industrialists and other stakeholders to enable budding cosmetology entrepreneurs access seed capital to kick-start their projects, as a way of addressing the current 40 per cent unemployment level in the Country.
Kimemia further said they came-up with the idea after realizing there was a high number of potential student entrepreneurs, whose ideas end-up wasted for lack of nurturing opportunities and funding.
He said cultivating business ideas among youths early holds the key to lifting the county’s economy to a higher pedestal, and could provide a solution to the ever-rising cases of unemployment.
“The up-coming business incubation hub has an adequate capacity to empower students to be self-employed upon graduation, thereby, reducing pressure on the ever-thinning employment space,” noted Kimemia.
The Incubation Centre, Kimemia added, was currently nurturing entrepreneurial ideas among over 200 cosmetology students at the Institution as a way of helping the County break the unemployment stalemate.
He said through the business incubation hub, the institute would be able to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit of potential businessmen and students and make them rely less on formal employment through provision of seed capital and networking.
“Incubation programmes can play an integral role in bridging the gap between knowledge acquired in school and entrepreneurial skills,” Kimemia assured.
The Director regretted that most start-ups faced difficulties in patenting their products and finding markets for new products, a situation, he said, could be remedied by incubation hubs as they could play a key role in serving as a place where academic and entrepreneurs’ strengths merge.
In the past, universities and tertiary institutions had been blamed for focusing on teaching theoretical courses which had driven students to rely heavily on the limited formal jobs market, as the skills do not prepare them for enterprise.
Kimemia pledged that RVIBS was placing more emphasis on producing graduates ready for employment by providing the requisite skills needed by the labour market and entrepreneurs who could create jobs themselves.
He said the incubation center was fashioned in a way that could churn out fully-baked graduates and potential employers to tackle joblessness.
Dimeways Executive Director James Gachiri, noted that world over, the traditional tertiary institutions’ role has changed and entrepreneurial educational facilities are now needed to redirect new knowledge for economic development through business incubation hubs.
Gachiri said it was only through such hubs where research outcomes could be linked with the industry and development through creation of an environment in which investors, financial institutions, innovators and industrialists among other stakeholders could help budding entrepreneurs put their new ideas, special skills and abilities into new businesses.
He explained that the management of a Business Incubation program inside RVIBS represented a great advantage for the entrepreneurs, as it would provide links to the industry, society and government entities.
Gachiri was happy that the initiative was geared towards becoming more accountable to the wider public and contributing directly to the local, regional and national economic development through taking on a range of “third mission” activities including incubation of start-up firms, knowledge commercialization, the development of knowledge transfer partnerships and providing entrepreneurship courses.
He indicated that the business incubation hub intended to transform RVIBS into a strategic partner in supporting entrepreneurs, to fill the gap by using research results for economic development.
Gachiri observed that the business incubation hub was aimed at reinforcing links between RVIBS and business communities through transferring technological advances and research outcomes to the market through commercialization channels.
According to the Director the increasingly disruptive business environment had made learning institutions, governments and businesses across the globe rethink their innovation strategies.
“Many organizations have come to the realization that the only way to survive is to change consistently and constantly adapt to new conditions, while hedging long-term success not only on their ability to leverage current capabilities, but also on taking risks and exploring unknown areas through innovation,” he added.
By Esther Mwangi and Dennis Rasto
