Give priority to youth entrepreneurship

By Raphael Obonyo

Kenya: Forbes Africa has released the list of Africa’s best young entrepreneurs, and shockingly seven out of the 30 under 30 personalities listed are from Kenya.

The great performance should cause us to think hard as a country on how to promote youth entrepreneurship to address the worsening youth unemployment.  

Like many African countries, Kenya has a huge youthful population. According to the 2009 Kenya population and housing census, 78 per cent of the country’s total population of 38,610 097 people is composed of people below age 34. Those aged between 15 and 35 constitute about 36 per cent of the total population.

It is noteworthy that youth aged between 15-34 years constitute about 70 per cent of the Working Age Population that is estimated to stand at about 19.8 million people. The group aged 15-34 years, however, is the largest among the unemployed in the Working Age Population.

 Tragically, the national unemployment rate stands at 40 per cent with youth constituting at least 75 per cent of the total unemployed people in the country. Moreover, about 500,000 youth join the labour market every year.  In essence, unemployment remains the single most serious problem facing youth in Kenya. There is no denying that youth unemployment is a major threat to the achievement of Kenya’s Vision 2030, the country’s long term development blue print.

 Since 1964, the issue of youth employment has occupied the agenda of successive Governments in post independent Kenya.  But the Government doesn’t seem to have found the right formulae to tackle youth unemployment.

 A number of policies, programmes and initiatives have been crafted to try and address youth unemployment. Some of the youth employment programmes and policies that stand out include the National Youth Service (NYS), Youth Polytechnics, Youth Empowerment Centres, Youth Enterprise and Development Fund (YEDF) and Kenya Youth Empowerment Project (that included Kazi Kwa Vijana-KKV).

Others are the National Youth Policy, National Action Plan on Youth Employment and the recent presidential directive which requires youths to take about 30  per cent preference of Government procurement opportunities.

 Despite the Government’s efforts, a significant number of Kenyan youth remain unemployed, underemployed or underpaid. Unemployed youth across the country are depressed and driven to the point of desperation- a major cause for insecurity, crime, and drug abuse among other social ills.

 Recently President Uhuru announced that the Sh6 billion that was set aside for the run-off will be channeled to the youth fund. The move is welcome, but there is need to ensure that policies and systems are put in place to ensure that the funds benefit the youth. Most important, the Government should not just throw money at the youth, it should train them on how to start and manage businesses.

Also, it is imperative for the county Governments to prioritise and create an enabling environment for job creation particularly for the youth.  Make no mistake, high youth unemployment will impede the growth and development of the county Governments if it is not addressed effectively.

If Kenya wants to ensure its stability and prosperity, we must establish and support more opportunities for young entrepreneurs. The way to do that is to provide the legal framework and facilitate young people to establish their own businesses. Also, we should establish youth-friendly financial services and address the need for access to credit for youth to start businesses.

Crucially, Government needs to provide more resources for youth entrepreneurship.  If youth entrepreneurship is not a priority in national budgets, then this whole drive to tackle youth unemployment won’t get very far.

We must realise that the Government cannot deal with youth unemployment alone. We need to create about 500,000 jobs every year to tackle the high unemployment among youth.

Private sector, Governments, academia and the media all need to join forces to address youth unemployment.  

The writer is the External Advisor, United Nations Habitat’s Youth Advisory Board.