Operationalize county revolving fund, ODM MP urges County

ODM Nominated MP Umulkheir Harun Mohamed has urged the county executive to operationalize the County revolving fund.

The fund was passed in 2018 and what remains is the county to operationalize it.

She said the fund is an opportunity for women, the youth, and people living with disabilities to get cash to support their ventures.

In the long run, she said, they will contribute to the growth of the county economy.

Speaking in Garissa town after meeting a group of sub-county youth leaders, the Nominated MP further urged the targeted groups to seize the opportunity presented to them by forming groups and borrowing money to start up businesses so that they can be self-reliant.

“My request to Hon . Nathif is to kindly move with speed and operationalize the youth revolving fund. Youth and women funds must be allocated in the budget to support youth and women groups," he said

"As leaders, we must strive to empower our people especially hundreds of our youth who remain jobless. I strongly believe this will boost efforts to tackle poverty and promote entrepreneurship." 

The Youthful MP said the county's unexploited potential is huge among the youth, women, and people living with disabilities noting that once the fund is up and running, it will enable them to exploit their potential for prosperity.

Umulkheir who is also the founder of the Kesho Alliance, an NGO that she started in 2015 said that once the kitty is operationalized, every deserving group in all locations across the county should benefit from the kitty.

"Youth-running small businesses, blacksmiths, tuk-tuk, boda boda operators and all the other businesses should benefit from the fund. It is the only way we will be able to uplift our people economically,” he said.

She regretted that many of the financial institutions cannot offer any loan facility to the groups saying that many of them don’t have log books, title deeds and other documents that are required by banks to offer loans.

She further challenged the local youth to be innovative as well as join technical institutions and acquire skills for growth.

She said that the two areas have a lot of potential that remains untapped by the local youth.

Governor Jama while speaking Masalani on Saturday said that his administration was working round the clock to operationalize the fund soon.

He said that the era of relying on white-collar jobs is long gone because of the scarcity of such opportunities.

He further regretted that youth in the area shy away from joining technical training colleges despite being fully equipped, something he noted disadvantages them.