They are determined to succeed and nothing can stop them
They walk with a swagger and exude a confidence that with seeming determination, is a clear sign that they know what they want and where they are going.
They are today’s new breed of entrepreneurs — the youth, who desperate from looking for white collar jobs, frustrated by the few employment opportunities in the country are adopting the attitude of the ‘we-can-do-it’ in business.
From embroidery to bioengineering, transportation to farming activities, they are pushing forth Kenya’s economy and are adding vitality to an economy that, far too often in recent years, has denied them recognition.
“Entrepreneurship will be the major impetus of this decade, and the youth will be the people to drive the revolution,” says Mr Gerishom Okunda, 36, an entrepreneur who is the founder of DS Max Foundation, an organisation that creates employment for the youth.
Creating waves
So far, he has helped employ more than 51,000 youth since he started his business seven years ago. Although he falls among those who have since passed the million shilling mark in their investments, there are many more youths, often unknown, who are creating waves and enormous profits.
Last week, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, held its second national youth trade fair. The event was aimed at bringing together Kenya’s uncelebrated young entrepreneurs, to showcase their work and network with others. The exhibitions where varied: Some came with interlocking bricks, still fresh from the furnace, while others carried foodstuffs, herbs, tomato sauces and fruits grown deep in the sandy soils of North Eastern Province. Some had invested in bottling water and others milling flour.
The fire-paced technological advancement saw several displays on online gateway systems to interactive websites, and the never-ending array of services in the technological field. Riding the crest of the new wave, is the spirit of self-reliance, a willingness to take risks and fearless of unfortunate market eventualities.
For this generation, statistics have painted a grim future. The CIA Factbook puts Kenya’s unemployment rate at 40 per cent and the country is ranked number 185 among the countries with the highest unemployment levels in the world. President Kibaki has also cited unemployment as the biggest hurdle in Kenya’s quest to transform into a middle-income country.
According to the ministry of Youth and Sports, there are nearly 2.5 million unemployed youth, and barely125,000 are absorbed annually into formal employment. Many economists differ; they say the number is higher, given the expansion of secondary and tertiary education in recent times.
According to them, there will be 14 million unemployed youth in the next 7 years. Last year, only 55,000 jobs were created. It was a rise from the 34,000 jobs created in 2008. The Institute of Policy Analysis and Research chief executive officer, Prof Inonda Mwanje, told said recently that the high number of jobless youths could spark off a peoples’ revolution if it is not tamed. Kenyatta University Economics Lecturer Dr Paul Gachanja also fears the effects of a “lost generation” of jobless youngsters, those not in employment, education or training.
However, there is hope — this cynical and disillusioned generation is now engaging in some economic activies. According to experts, the country needs to believe in a creative youth, which will stimulate the economy.
Arrest situation
“We have to bring in plans to arrest the situation as soon as possible,” say Umaro Wario, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund CEO, who knows only too well the devastating effect youth unemployment can have in the country. The youth fund has since its launch in 2006, disbursed a total of Sh1.9 billion to 65,555 youth enterprises.
Today, the march to business is moving at a faster pace. New businesses owned by youth continue to inch up daily. Take the example of 23-year-old Oscar Kimani. Brought up and bred in an entrepreneurship family, he is the owner of a successful tour firm, Unique Safaris, which is an employer of seven.
The young man who also owns an ICT firm, insists that Kenya’s problems can be solved if more youth are taught and supported in going the self-employment route. “Instead of teaching us to get employment, the education system should focus on arming us with knowledge that tunes us towards creativity,” the young entrepreneur awaiting-graduation at the Strathmore University Business School asserts.
With the economy unable to create adequate unemployment opportunities for the hundreds of thousands who enter into the labour markets annually, the current generation is blighted by youth unemployment. Dr Tom Namwamba reveals that even masters’ students are finding it hard to secure jobs.
Critics of the Vijana na Kazi project, a government effort to create employment, say it is a short-term plan that only solves short-term unemployment problems, but which leaves a larger problem. “The government should shift focus to giving tools for setting up businesses to youth and offer low start-up loan rates to make it easier to cover overhead costs. These are the things that kill start-ups,” Economic Development lecturer, Dr Emmanuel Manyasa, said during an earlier interview.
Kazi Kwa Vijana is a scheme that offers youth employment for a few hundreds of shillings for a while, and then leaves them unemployed once more. The problem is that this keeps the youth cosily hooked to casual employment, which curtails their chances of setting up businesses or looking for worthwhile employment.
Mr Angelo Mwamburi of Forecast Youth Development Organisation from Taita Taveta District, says most of the 21 members who make the youth organisation had depended so much on jobs which offered them very little returns at the end of the day.
“Some used to earn as low as Sh50 in a day. The day we sat and decided to do something different, our lives changed forever. Today, we are the most established flour millers in Taita and its environs, as welll as makers of interlocking bricks. We are the only local firm in the area that bottles drinking water,” he says.
Most visited
During the trade fair held at KICC, the group’s stand was among the most visited. Kirango Water is the hard-earned product that the group invested Sh5.8 million into to start off. They also used Sh50,000 from the youth fund, got a generator costing Sh750,000 from the Arid and Semi-Arid kitty and the rest from personal savings and donations.
At the same event, was 22-year-old Halima Osman, who has joined hands with several other youths to form Amber Youth Group. “Sometimes people look at us (women) in the group badly for being with men most of the time. It’s a negative attitude that we want to change,” the young woman dressed in a black hijab says.
“We are in it for business, and we are making and showing the rest that it’s not a must for all of us to earn a living from pastoralism. We make and sell Somali swords, calabashes, necklaces, armlets and bangles,” she adds. “I don’t expect to just walk into a mechanic’s job or anything like that, but I would be willing to train,” she says.
Ms Linda Kwamboka, a student from Strathmore University and who is also the president of the Students’ Enterprise Program, looks at entrepreneurship not from owning an idea or just implementing it: but it has to have visibility, access to the market and capital and mentoring.
“Through our programme, we create an environment of sharing among young entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs love keeping information to themselves and this limits their success,” she says. “We push them to achieve what they really want, not just depending on a dead-end course,” she adds.
There have been several initiatives to make doing business easier, attractive and profitable for the youth. However, the initiatives are of no use if overhead costs still remain high.
Procedures
The government provides for 30 per cent of its contracts to go to youth-owned enterprises, but the long and tiresome procedures of registering a company, raising initial capital, high tax rates, corruption and government bureaucracy, has so far ensured that only a handful benefit from such an worthwhile opportunity.
Still, entrepreneurship is not without risks. Although the stigma for failure has lessened over time, the failure rate among SME start-ups still remains high. Experts say a majority of small businesses fold up after an average of 18 months, due to failure to face stiff competition.
As the trade fair revealed, the country faces tough times and the youth even harder times, but it is not without hope. There are lots of young people who are doing well — trying to get their hands on anything that makes them earn positively.
What is intriguing when you interview these young people, who sell things that range from toy cars to innovative airplane designs, hoping that one day it will fly, is that even in a system that has given up on them, they haven’t given up.
— engisesa@yahoo.com
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