Enable Youth Kenya Program Struggles to Take Off

The Enable Youth Kenya Program was designed to improve food security in Kenya, create tens of thousands of much-needed formal and temporary jobs countrywide, and increase national self-sufficiency in consumer goods The Enable Youth Kenya Program — an incubation project aimed at funding novel youth business ideas in agriculture and increasing value addition in the sector is struggling to take off, according to a source.

The program, funded by the African Development Bank (ADF) and administered by the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC), was launched in 2020 and intended to fund 500 young entrepreneurs annually after a 6-12 month incubation period.

The project was scheduled to run for four years and fund 2,000 youths to the tune of Ksh 2 billion, with Ksh 1.2 billion for direct funding and Ksh 800 million as a risk guarantee for those seeking additional capital from commercial banks.

Three years later, however, the situation is bleak, with fewer than 20 of the first cohort of 500 youths having received any funding, and none having been fully funded.

The funds disbursed have also been heavily slashed, often to less than Ksh 1 million for both accelerators and standards.

While AFC has not shared its reasons for cutting funding, the money received from the ADB is said to be sufficient to cover all incubatees at their qualified asking figure, at no risk to AFC.

Here is what our source had to say.