Selection Kenya
Kenya Private Sector Alliance
KEPSA is the apex organization of the private sector in Kenya. It brings together local and foreign business associations, chambers of commerce, professional bodies, corporates from multinational companies, medium, SMEs, and start-ups from all sectors of the economy to enable them to speak with one voice when engaging government, development partners and other stakeholders on cross-cutting policy issues and programs for Social – Economic Development of the Country.
KEPSA working with TWIVA which is an influencer marketing and social commerce platform that harnesses the vast penetration of smartphones, internet connectivity, mobile banking and social media. Together, we hope to bridge the gap between employment demand and supply in Kenya through the TwendeDigital Project.
The Problem
In Kenya, an estimated amount of 35% of young men and women between the ages of 18 and 35 are currently unemployed or underemployed. This is a growing problem that needs to be solved urgently since the youth between the ages of 18 and 35 constitute around 75% of the total population in Kenya.
Young women, are especially constrained when seeking (decent) employment as they face social additional social expectations concerning childcare and housework, and have average education levels.
In general, leading causes of unemployment and underemployment in Kenya in the tech and apparel manufacturing sector is the lack of capital to start and run business ventures, and an inadequate amount of formal jobs to absorb employment seeking youth.
The Solution
With our project, TwendeDigital, we aim to bridge the gap between the demand and supply side in the employment market of the tech and apparel manufacturing sector. We will do this by increasing the opportunities for Kenyan youth to find decent employment in these sectors, by providing them with the necessary skills.
We will achieve this goal by offering training, (skills) development and support to young Kenyan entrepreneurs. This will help them adopt to the use of e-commerce, marketing platforms and several other digital tools.
Our long term goal with our project is to increase the employment opportunities for a total of 3.046 young Kenyan men and women. We will do this by enhancing the performance of youth owned enterprises through the adoption of digital technologies. We will use the same method to build up the capacity of 400 SMEs. Additionally, we aim to increase the average income earned by the employed youth from kes 10000 to kes 25000, and increase the overall employment satisfaction rate.
Additionality
With the help of the fund, KEPSA and Twiva will be able to support 400 SMEs to adopt the use of technology through intensive capacity building and technical assistance on use of digital skills and platforms, an achievement that would not have been realised within a period of two years without the help and support of CFYE. Additionally, we hope to achieve the creation of 5000 jobs in five years.
The fund will ignite a catalytic effect ensuring exponential growth in jobs created over time. It will enable us to reach more youth in other parts of the country.
The project will help create more decent jobs for youth and women in the creative sector through targeted digital activations. With a 60% focus on women led enterprises, KEPSA and Twiva, will partner with players in the creative industry. Interactive learning forums will be held with SME entrepreneurs on use of the digital platform to market and sell their goods and services.
