Youth in Kiambu County are set to benefit from Plug Mtaani Vijana 2Invest, a business idea competition for the youth that aims at connecting business ideas to opportunities.
The programme is being implemented by the county Department of Trade, Industrialisation, Tourism, and Investment, Directorate of Industrialisation in collaboration with the State Department of Commerce- (MITI), KenInvest, RADICO Kenya, ICST and Crescent 360 Limited.
Plug Mtaani/Vijana 2Invest is a foundational enterprise development programme aimed at educating youths on wealth creation and investments, among other financial challenges.
According to Nancy Gichungwa Kiambu, County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Trade, Industrialization, Tourism, and Investment, the initiative will provide skills to young people so that they can overcome financial challenges.
“Plans to commence the programme in Kiambu County are already underway, where youths with business ideas from all over the country will undertake a five-day training on ILO-SIYB (idea generation and business plan creation),” said Gichungwa.
The CECM for Trade added that the competition will involve youths from different sub-counties who will participate in business idea generation and the creation of a business plan.
“The youth will pitch their ideas while the judges select nine categories, and winners will be awarded accordingly at the county aggregation parks,” she added.
She further outlined that the initiative will link the youths to their financial opportunities, grants, and investors.
“The primary agenda of the initiative is to prove a platform where youths will be guided to become co-creators of employment through partnerships”, said Gichungwa.
In his speech when he unveiled the Plug Mtaani-Vijana 2Invest programme in Nairobi last month, Youth and Sport CS Ababu Namwamba said the initiative will run from the county to the national level of government, where winners from each category and also the participants will be awarded.
The CS cited that the initiative is under President William Ruto’s directive, where the best youth nationally will be awarded Sh10 million by the President.
By Grace Naishoo
