- Dutch ambassador said youth bulge and enormous entry into labour market require custom-made solutions.
- Challenge Fund for Youth Employment from the Netherlands will give one-third grants to best value-addition ideas, others to help.
Image: JAMES MUNYA
Young entrepreneurs in agriculture need to focus on creative value addition if they want to make more money and create jobs for the 'youth bulge'.
Otherwise, without value addition, farming is just another extractive sector, like mining.
For example, from milk, farmers can produce low-fat milk, skim milk, yogurt, sour milk, sour cream and cheeses.
This is the view of the Dutch ambassador to Kenya Maarten Brouwer who spoke during the launch of the Dutch Challenge Fund for Youth Employment on Friday in Nakuru.
He urged young entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector to focus on value addition to reap the full benefits of the lucrative industry.
“Agriculture is very important, especially in this region. It provides employment opportunities but the real challenge is to add value. If you don’t add value to agriculture it is just an extractive industry like mining,” Ambassador Brouwer said.
“So the real challenge to the people from this county is how can you go to the next step and provide for value addition.”
The ambassador said the youth bulge and enormous entry into the labour market by the youths require custom-made solutions such as self-employment.
Increased funding by the government and development partners to TVETs will help address the problem of youth unemployment and under employment.
The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) is a six-year programme funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs which aims to reduce joblessness.
It aims to achieve this by supporting youth employment initiatives through funding from the private sector, civil society and knowledge institutions. They can help address specific challenges involving practical solutions for more and better jobs for youth.
Successful applicants for grants are to submit a full business case, the budget and the financing strategy. hen the fund contributes one-third of the total budget.
Nakuru is the second county to be involved after Nairobi in the second round of the Fund.
Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika, who was the chief guest at the launch, said the Dutch initiative will greatly help reduce unemployment.
“It is well known that unemployment is the disease that keeps eating away at our country’s economy. We are excited to partner with programmes such as this that seek long-lasting solutions to unemployment.
“As a major trading and investment partner, The Netherlands continues to be an integral development partner," the governor said.
She affirmed that county government support for the programme is expected to create a significant number of jobs for Nakuru youths. .
She also urged the private sector, which will drive the initiative, to give decent salaries to their employees, which will help to improve their output and in turn benefit the employer.
On his part the Nakuru vice chairman of the Chamber of Commerce John Kamama urged small businesses to join together and form consortiums to benefit from the fund.
(Edited by V. Graham)