Government to engage NYS in cost-cutting

NAIROBI: The Government will be banking on the National Youth Service (NYS) to help cut labour costs on infrastructure projects.

Allocating the institution Sh25 billion in the 2015-2016 budget, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said the allocation is aimed at creating youth employment and re-engineering NYS as a vehicle for transforming and empowering the youth.

Mr Rotich said NYS will be engaged in the construction of dams, border control and agriculture, a move aimed at saving the Government from spending more.

The revamped NYS is guided by a strategic plan that aims to ensure the trainees’ talent do not go to waste after graduating.

As part of the restructuring plan, NYS will conduct basic and vocational training covering engineering, agribusiness, construction, hospitality, fashion, enterprise and public duty.

INCREASED ENROLLMENT

Presenting the budget estimates for the next financial year in Parliament Thursday, Rotich said said 10,900 youths are expected to have joined NYS by 2017.

Currently, 31,000 NYS recruits are being engaged by the Government up from 6,000 in the past one year.

Other than youth empowerment, the move is seen as a way of reducing Government spending.

The service plans to set up a National Construction Company of Kenya.

“The youth will be equipped with skills aimed at meeting our national agenda. We have revamped NYS to be a robust institution able to drive the youth agenda as per the Government’s manifesto,” he said.

In January, NYS secured a deal to construct 15,000 police housing units in Kiambu County.

This is part of the plan to put up 75,000 housing units for police officers in the country.

Devolution Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru told Parliamentarians that the housing project in Kiambu County will cost 30 per cent less than the initial budget.

Additionally, NYS graduates are likely to benefit from various State opportunities.

In January this year, the Government said the graduates will be given priority in the allocation of 100,000 jobs Kenya has secured in the United Arabs Emirates.

The Jubilee government re-engineered the youth service programme, whose budget has been on the increasing trend for the past three years.