Some 63 youth groups in Narok County have benefited from Sh6.25 million, courtesy of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF), during 2021/2022 financial year.
The County Director of Youth Joash Ratemo said this was an increase from Sh4.97 million disbursed in the year 2020/ 2021 from the same kitty, among 44 youth groups.
In the same period, five individuals who applied for funding were given a total of Sh3.44 million to boost and expand their businesses, he added.
The Director said most of the other youth groups who had applied had received the money in their accounts, while encouraging more youths to follow suit, so as to improve on their standards of living.
“The process of applying for the funds is not even lengthy as assumed by many. We have people who pay a lot of money in cyber cafes to get a business proposal done for them, only to visit our offices and find out that the business proposal was not needed after all,” he said.
Ratemo said majority of the youths, who have applied for the money are doing small businesses like bee keeping, poultry rearing, vegetable farming and dairy goat rearing among other businesses.
At the same time, the youth director said 1, 515 groups in the county have received over Sh127 million from Uwezo Fund since its inception in the year 2014.
However, he decried that only Sh24.79 million of the money had been refunded back despite the beneficiaries having been asked to repay the money so as to get a larger amount.
“The money is a revolving fund and the faster you refund the money, the higher the chance you get to borrow a bigger amount. I encourage all those who have not paid back the money to do so, to allow others to benefit from the funds,” he said.
“The government has rolled out numerous programmes to benefit the youth of this country” said Ratemo, adding that there was no need for any young person to remain idle, depending on the parents.
“I encourage young people to visit our offices and find out what programme suits them. We have an equipped Youth Empowerment Center in our sub counties where young people come to explore their talents,” he said.
By Ann Salaton
