Address Gen Z unemployment through value chains in key sectors

A man is seen through used tyres cleaning shoes along Southern Bypass corridors in Nairobi on November 22nd, 2021 [File. Standard]

When a tea farmer in Kericho walks into a local store and buys a leather jacket or a cotton shirt made in Kenya, he is not just shopping, he is actively driving and contributing to economic growth by stimulating multiple sectors of the economy.

Unknowingly, he becomes part of the value chain that is attached to pastoralists in northern Kenya and the cotton farmers in Coast, Nyanza, Western, and Central region counties, to the leather processing tanneries in Athi River and Nakuru and the sewing machines in Nairobi. This forms a network that links rural production with urban industrial transformation, generating thousands of jobs, sustaining livelihoods, and fostering inter-county economic transformation through enterprise and innovation.