Youths fund agency spends Sh1 billion on staff instead

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

Kenyan youth looking to start or expand businesses will have to seek other ways to finance their trade as the enterprise fund channels Sh1 billion elsewhere.

A report in Parliament by Auditor General Nancy Gathugu stated that the Youth Enterprise Development Fund instead used the money for staff travel and salaries.

Gathugu said such expenditure jeopardises the sustainability of the fund and that it should stick to its intended purpose of issuing loans to young people.

“No reallocation approvals were availed for audit verification to support the utilisation of conditional grants on recurrent expenditure,” she said.

The auditor general added that in the last four years the YEDF has incurred deficits, which hurt its performance as a revolving fund.  

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) is one of the Government’s strategies to address youth unemployment through entrepreneurship. It has so far supported 2 million youth with loans worth Sh13.5 billion.