More than 1500 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) entrepreneurs in Nakuru are set to benefit from free training to improve their business skills in a deal inked between the County Government of Nakuru, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Kenya Institute of Business Training (KIBT).
According to the County Chief Officer in charge of Trade Mr. Samuel Ndegwa, the new strategic partnership has rolled out a training module dubbed, Enhancing Enterprise Competitiveness in Kenya (EECK) that seeks to train the SMEs and entrepreneurs drawn from the County.
The training programme, Ndegwa added, was designed to position the entrepreneurs and their small businesses for investment opportunities and for building viable business models.
The chief officer said the collaboration was timely, coming at a time the County administration was preparing to launch an Enterprise Development Fund (EDF), adding that the training will help bridge the gap between financial institutions and SMEs, thereby fostering the growth of the sector.
Speaking during a consultative meeting between County officials and representatives of JICA and KIBT, Ndegwa disclosed that training areas will include business growth strategies, building digital marketing roadmaps, discovering and evaluating funding routes, and how to pitch successfully.
Ndegwa observed that SMEs were the driving force of economic development in Nakuru County, accounting for 90 percent of all businesses, 50 percent of employment, and 40 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said the initiative was expected to build small and medium enterprises’ muscles in financial and human resource management, strategic planning, marketing and communication to enable the entrepreneurs to do business better and expand more.
“The program being undertaken is specifically tailored towards enhancing the financial literacy of SME businesses and inculcate in entrepreneurs the necessary skills required to run their businesses effectively and enable them to take advantage of the financial opportunities offered by banks,” added the chief officer.
JICA Project Coordinator Musako Uehara said through the partnership, the three institutions would leverage each other’s expertise to create a supportive ecosystem specifically designed to propel SMEs to the next level of growth and economic contribution.
Through the program, Uehara indicated that businessmen would also be able to understand and effectively use financial skills such as personal financial management, budgeting, and investing to scale up their firms.
The partnership is seen as a critical step in supporting SMEs in Nakuru which is a vital sector for the country’s economic vitality, the project Coordinator said.
SMEs make up 98 percent of all businesses in Kenya, responsible for creating 30 percent of the country’s jobs annually and contributing 3 percent to the GDP.
However, only a small proportion of these businesses survive beyond their first few years, with more than half of all SMEs in Kenya reportedly closing within one year of founding.
A 2018 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) report shows approximately 400,000 SMEs do not celebrate their second birthday and very few of them reach their fifth birthday.
A recent Annual Performance Report for MSMEs for the 2021/2022 Financial Year by the National Treasury indicates that the majority of newly established Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in the country do not survive the fourth birthday.
The report notes that the businesses, despite the critical roles they play in the economy, continue to face a myriad of challenges including constrained access to finance, market challenges and weak business strategies.
By Esther Mwangi and Sam Karanja
