The overall winner of the recently launched Plug Mtaani business competition programme for youth will be awarded Sh10 million.
Plug Mtaani National Coordinator, Mr. Geoffrey Kilonzo, said the programme is targeting the youth who can transform various sectors in every county and enable them to move from job seekers to job creators.
Speaking in Eldoret during a one-day sensitization meeting with youths from Uasin Gishu County, Kilonzo said the award will go to a youth who will pitch the best innovative and sustainable business idea nationally.
According to Kilonzo, the first runner-up will pocket Sh5 million, while the second runner-up will take home Sh2.5 million.
He said Plug Mtaani, a consortium working with the Ministry of Trade through the Kenya Investment Authority, intends to use up to Sh130 million to train, capacity-build, and award youths drawn from all the counties within the next 10 years.
“The Plug Mtaani business idea is designed to nurture the talents of young entrepreneurs by training and capacity building them on how to generate innovative and sustainable business ideas as one way of addressing the 61 per cent of the youth who are currently unemployed, underemployed challenge,” said Kilonzo.
“This is a continuous programme for the next ten years; we aim to train the youth on how to package the business idea into a bankable business plan that will help them access credit either from financial institutions or from their respective county governments,” he added.
Kilonzo said the programme will have three components: training on innovation, packaging their business plans, and coaching on how to scale up their plans.
From next year, Kilonzo said, Plug Mtaani will take investors, local and international, to every county where the youths can pitch their innovation ideas before the investors. “This way, the youth may interest an investor with his or her business idea and end up getting financial and mentorship support,” he said.
“Mentorship and coaching will be available to the youth,” he said, adding that they target to train 200 youth from every county, and if the idea succeeds by at least 70 per cent, with each creating at least four jobs, the programme will impact more than 200,000 livelihoods directly or indirectly across the country.
In his remarks, Uasin Gishu Governor Mr. Jonathan Bii called on the county youth participating in the competition from his county to put their best foot forward and bring the awards home, as the county’s slogan reads “the champions”.
The governor who opened the one-day meeting lauded the initiative, saying it will nurture the talents of young entrepreneurs and create innovativeness, resilience, and determination among the youth.
Bii said his administration will prioritise matters that are youth-specific, noting that he will provide additional opportunities for youth to participate in other innovative ideas.
“We will work with other partners to see to it that provision of financial support is attained for our county youth to benefit,” noted the County Chief.
The governor further urged Plug Mtaani Business Idea Leadership and Management to look for other opportunities globally and link the youths with them to further sell their ideas.
Uasin Gishu County will award the overall winner from the county in the Plug Mtaani business competition Sh100, 000; the second and third will take home Sh50, 000 and Sh30, 000, respectively.
By Kiptanui Cherono
