NYOTA Project Expands Youth Enterprise Training in Makadara and Remote Lamu
Basuba Ward MCA Deko Barisa Bwana hailed the outreach, highlighting that structured empowerment programs hardly reach communities that are deep inside the Boni Forest.
The main aim of the classroom-based sessions is to impart in participants the ability to identify viable business opportunities and turn their ideas into going concerns in their respective communities. Photo/Courtesy
By Ruth Sang
The NYOTA Project has continued scaling up its youth empowerment activities across the country, with notable training activities over the weekend in both Nairobi’s Makadara Constituency and the remote villages of Lamu West.
On Saturday, a total of 230 youth beneficiaries selected from Hamza, Viwandani, Harambee and Makongeni wards gathered at the Rabai Road Primary School in Makadara for a four-day business training programme. The main aim of the classroom-based sessions is to impart in participants the ability to identify viable business opportunities and turn their ideas into going concerns in their respective communities.
After the training sessions, participants will start receiving phased NYOTA start-up grants to support them in starting or expanding their small businesses. The program will then progress to a three-day experiential learning phase, where trainees will be connected to Nairobi’s vibrant business environment. In this phase, they will interact with accomplished entrepreneurs, experience the competitive markets, and observe real-time business operations.
Attention shifted on Sunday to Lamu West, as Principal Secretary for MSMEs Development Susan Mang’eni toured NYOTA training centres in Kiwayu, Ndau, Mkokoni, and Kiangwe-all deep inside the expansive Boni Forest. Her visit was meant to show that the government is determined to ensure enterprise development opportunities are within reach of young people regardless of geographical obstacles.
“Our approach ensures that the youth both in the remotest and urban areas have equal opportunities for enterprise development,” PS Mang’eni said.
She said that from the isolated villages of Lamu to the urban wards of Nairobi, the NYOTA initiative is designed to pave ways to value addition, start-up support, and integration into high-potential value chains, including the emerging blue economy.
Mang’eni was accompanied by the Principal Secretary for Investment Promotion, Abubakar Hassan, who underscored that the government’s ambition goes beyond helping youth launch businesses. He clarified that the broader objective of the government is to empower them to establish enterprises that are capable of growing, prospering and creating employment.
Basuba Ward MCA Deko Barisa Bwana hailed the outreach, highlighting that structured empowerment programs hardly reach communities that are deep inside the Boni Forest. He hailed the effort as a step toward bridging development gaps that had persisted for years.
Meanwhile, the business support component of the NYOTA Project has so far mobilised 42,735 trainees in 510 wards in 17 counties against a requirement to enrol at least 70 participants in every ward. In this respect, the activities in Makadara and Lamu are illustrative of the wider mission of the project: providing equal, practical, and transformative entrepreneurship support to youth Kenyans, whether they stay in busy urban centres or some of the country’s most far-flung rural communities.
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