Ajira Digital has brought together different partners in the public and private sector as well as in the development forum to help fulfill its mandate of making Kenya a freelancing hub by 2025.
Director of Ajira Digital and Youth Employment at the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) Ehud Gachugu said Ajira was one of the programs under the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs that intends to make Kenya an out-sourcing hub by 2030.
Speaking during the Ajira Digital Project’s Nakuru County intervention forum kick-off, he said the program was contributing to Vision 2030’s Economic and Macro Pillers.
Gachugu said the program was creating a work force and supporting policies that were going to make the digital economy a strong pillar for supporting the realization of vision 2030
“It is an enabler, a catalyst and an aggregator of Vision 2030, it brings people together to have solutions that they require to lip-frog the economy across sectors,” he said.
He said Ajira Digital was an anchor program that sought to have an additional layer of providing employment to millions of young people.
Gachugu said Ajira digital was working with Kepsa, an apex body of private business organisations in the country whose main focus was to unlock digital job
“The program has also partnered with Mastercard Foundation through Young African Works Program to create and support the youth access dignified and meaningful jobs,” said Gachugu
He added that with the help of partners, the program was looking for ways that youth can get access to opportunities for training in digital and digitally enabled jobs.
He observed that this required creating Infrastructure for training and acquiring physical spaces in the rural areas where young people can access devices that are provided by the government for free.
“The program also provides access internet which is a big problem in the country and get tutors to mentor and train the youth to navigate digital economy,” he said.
He promised that Ajira Digital would open opportunities in the evolving digital economy that has potential to provide employment vacancies for young people and propel the economy forward.
The program does not talk of ICT as a sector but an enabler across the board, it works with companies in agricultural, manufacturing and energy that are pursuing digitization as part of their core-business strategy,” he added.
Gachugu noted that Ajira Digital brings in support services to businesses and gives solutions to young people who are either unemployed or under-employed by creating capabilities for them to earn decent and meaningful livelihoods.
“Digitising businesses is creating opportunities for young people to work as companies outsource services such like online marketing, logistics, web-design, social media management and other ICT related services,” he said.
The Director said Ajira was bringing all these information into a more structured version to make everyone understand that outsourcing to digital platforms is critical to business.
“We can also have an on-demand talent that we do not have to hold in the companies through the freelancing economy which is now a dominant workforce solution for most companies in the country and abroad,” said Gachugu.
