By STANDARD REPORTER
The Jubilee Government sought to address rising joblessness among the youth by setting aside Sh6 billion to help them set up income generating projects.
National Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich said the programme would be modelled along the lines of the Constituency Development Fund.
“Success in this approach will form the basis for consolidating and rationalising existing youth and women’s funds,” he said in his Budget Speech.
He proposed amendments to the procurement law to enhance the reservation for youth, women and persons with disability from 10 per cent to 30 per cent.
The Government had also allocated Sh826 million for youth polytechnics. The new administration, he said, would reform the public procurement process in order to play a leading role in driving growth, creating quality jobs and reducing poverty. “Under the Jubilee administration, we are reforming the public procurement to reduce the turnaround time to complete a procurement process and make it less cumbersome, more transparent and supportive to our economic transformation agenda,” he said.
In response to employers’ reluctance to hire inexperienced jobseekers, he said initiatives were underway to improve information services to help young people access jobs and training opportunities.
“Also, the Government will develop a subsidy programme to employers that will lower the cost of hiring young people without work experience. Under consideration is a tax rebate to tax-compliant businesses and non-governmental organisations that hire inexperienced youth graduating from our institutions,” he said.
Rotich said Sh2 billion had been set aside for Agri-Business Fund for lending to smallholder and commercial farmers. “We plan to scale this Fund to Sh20 billion by the fourth year to expand access to Kenyans venturing in farming,” he added.
