Sh15bn credit facility to ease fees pain after Form Four
Graduands during the Moi University’s 38th Graduation Ceremony in Uasin-Gishu County on August 22, 2019.
What you need to know:
- The money will be disbursed to organisations, which support the vulnerable youth for onward distribution to individuals in a bid to bridge the high unemployment rate in the country.
- The roll-out of the project comes at a time millions of Kenyans, in the formal and informal sectors have been pushed out of work as firms cut costs due to falling revenues in the wake of the coronavirus economic nightmare.
- Applying organisations will be required to detail how much money they need from the kitty and how they are planning to scale up the number of beneficiaries under their programmes in the next three y
Thousands of Form-Four leavers are set to access cheap loans from a Sh15 billion credit facility bankrolled by the World Bank.
The kitty targets at least 280,000 Kenyans aged up to 29 who are unemployed or who the lender says are in ‘vulnerable jobs.’
The money will be disbursed to organisations, which support the vulnerable youth for onward distribution to individuals in a bid to bridge the high unemployment rate in the country.
The five-year project is anchored on the Future Bora Initiative — a collaboration between World Bank and Kenya that seeks to open up economic empowerment for vulnerable groups such as orphans, persons with disabilities, single mothers and youths affected by conflict.
The roll-out of the project comes at a time millions of Kenyans, in the formal and informal sectors have been pushed out of work as firms cut costs due to falling revenues in the wake of the coronavirus economic nightmare.
“This initiative, which we are launching is part of a five-year government project known as the Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project, which is funded with a credit of USD150 million (Sh15 billion) from the World Bank (WB),” ICT Secretary Joe Mucheru said during the launch last Friday.
Expand job creation
“Expanding opportunities for youth also requires interventions that expand job creation and increase earnings for youth who are interested in self-employment or wage employment, whether in the formal or informal sectors.”
Applying organisations will be required to detail how much money they need from the kitty and how they are planning to scale up the number of beneficiaries under their programmes in the next three years.
The organisations must also provide a list of all youth who have benefited from their interventions in the three years since 2017.
Applications opened on Thursday and will close on December 15 paving the way for roll-out of the much-needed credit facility.
The kitty will be managed by Itellecap — the advisory arm of Aavishkaar Group that will be tasked with selecting the organisations to benefit through the submitted applications.
Young people have been hit hard the Covid-19 economic fall-out with millions left idle within three months of the restrictions imposed to curb spread of the disease.
