By Gor Semelang’o
Kenya: Our attention is drawn to an opinion piece in The Standard newspaper of June 17 by Michael Waikenda titled, ‘Talk time is over, let’s now engage our Youth’.
Several allegations leveled against the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) by Mr Waikenda call for a factual rejoinder.
This is necessary, not to deride or belittle the commentator but to enlighten the public on the facts while disabusing snake-oil theories offered by the writer on how to empower Kenyan youth.
Contrary to the writer’s management theorems advocating multi-layered approach to youth empowerment, modern-day best practice encourages centralised decision-making processes that naturally ease prioritisation and delegation of tasks.
This common sense approach facilitates more efficient implementation as well as evaluation of progress and project impact.
Suspended CEO
At the YEDF, training, project financing and employment creation are integral parts of the same process. As a Fund, we are gravely aware that throwing money at the youth without the prerequisite entrepreneurship training is akin to giving pearls to swine.
Research in the conduct of business has over the years proven that most startups fail in the first three years of initiation largely because of poor or lack of preparedness.
The key resource that youth need is creativity and innovation. Once we encourage our youth to unleash the power of their imagination and create for them systematic ways of monetising their creations, the task of prospering them and by extension growing the economy is three-quarters done.
Once that is achieved, co-ordinating the outcome and making it part of the fabric of the county and national economy is a downhill task.
For the sake of setting the records right; the Fund employs a six-point formula to determine and guide the release of loans to eligible youth. Other mandates the Fund is charged with include entrepreneurship training that involves pre-disbursement coaching of target applicants.
The Fund is also mandated to create a commercial infrastructure aimed at enabling the youth to succeed in conducting business in low cost environments. Under this mandate, the fund has set aside Sh271 million for a Vijanaa Film Fund.
This initiative will establish movie villages that will revolutionise the film industry and spur economic prosperity among talented youth. This initiative will be launched on 26th June 2013.
Besides, the Fund will in July this year launch the first one-stop virtual office network for young entrepreneurs. This facility equipped with the infrastructure will also serve as an incubation centre to animate the 30 per cent State procurement decree aimed at benefitting the youth and announced by President Kenyatta.
Now turning to the management of the YEDF; I was appointed chairman in February 2013 after the expiry of the term of the previous Chairman. Together with the board, I promptly embarked on implementation of several audit reports. This exercise, conducted by several agencies, culminated in suspension of the Fund CEO.
As of now, the board has resolved almost all mismanagement spill-overs. The habit of creating illusory tempests for media consumption by the Fund’s administration has been muted. This media-bound war was a mere safe passage meant to veil fanciful non-official missions and to cover up impropriety.
Right now the current board has managed to unclog the process of qualifying youths to get loans within the shortest time and without taking them through unnecessary artificial frustrations. My first task at the chair was to recall all moneys given to banks for onward lending to youths.
Practical ways
I introduced a direct lending loan product called VUKA that allows young entrepreneurs to borrow from Sh100,000 to Sh2 million at a minimal 8 per cent and a grace period of three months. This was the only way to rescue the ineffectual lending cycle made too complicated by the bureaucracy of commercial banks.
In fact, the Sh6 billion put aside for the youth in the 2013-14 budget will be shared equitably and disbursed directly to the 47 counties.
Meanwhile, the Fund has increased group lending amount from Sh50,000 to Sh400,000 and with a 5 per cent administrative fee and removed the interest hitherto surcharged on the loan. There are several sector specific funding initiatives targeting agribusiness and franchising among others.
By end of July this year, establishment of a fully operational Youth Employment Scheme Abroad (YESA) Secretariat will be in place. This will address structured labour export expected to create an additional 750,000 job opportunities for young people annually.
It will also help sidestep unscrupulous labour export cartels that capitalise on our young people’s desperation for jobs abroad. YESA will offer a one-stop shop for qualified youths interesting in job opportunities abroad.
To boost the efficiency, the Fund is about to strengthen its grassroots outreach programmes by deploying loan officers in the 80 constituencies added to the previous number. This will enhance efficiency of loan processing at constituency level and where possible expedite the YEDF’s mandate from Constituency Development Fund offices.
The Sh6 billion promised to the youth will be divided into 290 constituencies and disbursed directly to youth groups at constituency level with the head office offering supervisory role to ensure accountability. The officers will be required to go through an intense TOT entrepreneurship training and each be assigned a motorcycle to ease their movement.
President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have demonstrated their willingness to lift Kenya’s youth from the morass of despondency and want in practical ways. Of course no prophet of doom should be allowed to cast illusory aspersions on a journey that has started so well in earnest. I rest my case.
-Writer is Chairman, Youth Enterprise Development Fund.
