The government is planning to roll out a programme that will revolutionize youth talents into more productive skills and assist them engage in self-employment.
Secretary for Administration of the State Department for Youth Affairs and Creative Economy Allan Machari on Friday noted that the National Youth Toward Advancement programme, dubbed NYOTA, is tailor made to exploit the potential among young people and support them to use their talents for meaningful activities.
Machari who spoke during a youth engagement forum in Murang’a said NYOTA Like Kenya Youth Employment Opportunities Project (KYEOP) will empower young people with development and financial skills, and fund their talents to enable them start business ventures with ease.
“The government has specific projects that are aimed at uplifting the well-being of youths, we had KYEOP and are now rolling out a programme called National Youth Towards Advancement.
“This is a program that will come to specifically identify the youths, mold their talents into more productive skills for them to be able to earn a livelihood,” Explained Machari who represented Youth Principal Secretary during the occasion held at Murang’a University of Technology.
The Secretary urged youths to have plans and identify their talents so that they can know how they will fit into the programme and benefit from it. For those in the creative industry, Machari remarked, the Ministry is waiting for the cabinet to approve the creative economy policy and bill, which will serve as the legal framework for regulating the sector.
“The government is currently coming up with a creative economy bill and creative economy policy. The purpose of this is to have a legal framework in regulating the creative sphere which is mainly dominated by the youths. The legislation is at an advanced stage, awaiting cabinet approval,” he clarified.
Murang’a deputy governor Stephen Munania who graced the occasion, observed that many youths miss out government opportunities because of lack of information. He noted that at times, both the national and county governments implement policies and fail to communicate the essence of those policies to the young people.
“Part of the reason why young people experience challenges is because we have problems in government communication on the programmes that are available. “In one context, we are formulating new policies, in the other context, we are not communicating the essence of those policies and what they are supposed to fix within the society,” Munania said.
Munania also faulted the youths for failing to form organized groups like Saccos and Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) yet expecting funding from government initiatives aimed at empowering young people and supporting entrepreneurship.
In Murang’a, for instance, Munania revealed that out of the 450 existing and active cooperative societies, less than 10 percent of the members are young people. “Resources are there but young people do not contextualize that a way of harnessing these government resources is to come together and form groups to get funding. Young people barely form organizations like Saccos, youth groups, MSEs or societies,” he observed.
Present in the event to mark the international youth week was also CEO Youth Enterprise Fund, Josiah Moriasi, who said that graduates from Murang’a Youth Service (MYS) will be financed with a loan of Sh100,000 to support and expand their businesses.
“We have agreed with the county government that Youth Enterprise Fund will be giving loans amounting to Sh100, 000 to MYS graduates to support them invest and expand their businesses,” noted Moriasi. During the event, youth groups from Gatanga Constituency received a cheque of Sh4 million from the Uwezo Fund while in total the County received a cheque of Sh10.7 million to be shared by groups which had applied for loans.
Also present at the event was CEO National Youth Council Margaret Kiogora and Director of Social Youth Development, Ms. Emily Maina. Ms Maina challenged the young people to be on the frontline in decision making of government policies. The CEO pointed out that youth cannot shy away from getting involved in matters of governance then start complaining of being sidelined by the government.
“When there is public participation involving the making of government policies, very few young people show up. We call upon our young people to come out, give their views and help in formulation of laws and policies aimed to tackle challenges they are facing like unemployment,” added Ms. Maina.