Safaricom Commits $8.4m To Youth Development In Kenya

VENTURES AFRICA – Safaricom Foundation is set to make microloan facility available for youths as part of its Sh250 million ($2.8 million) per year three-year investment plan, a total commitment of $8.4 million to the country’s economic development.The charity funded by Safaricom Limited, made this known on Thursday as it unveiled its three-year strategy aimed at helping the country address its economic development challenges, of which youth unemployment is chief.

Bob Collymore,chief executive of Safaricom Limited, who noted that one million people enter the Kenyan job market every year, said “We need to empower and change their mindsets from seeking for employment and support them to become job creators.”According to him, one of the major challenges facing Kenya’s talented youths was guidance and support to make a viable business out of their ideas.

The chief executive said the Foundation was more focused on results now and would therefore want to know how many young people were able to build a viable business from the mentoring and support they got at the end of the day.

Joseph Ogutu, Safaricom Foundation’s chairman, while speaking at the launch said gone were the days of giving grants based on the quality of proposals. According to him, the Foundation would rather ensure that youths given microloans are positioned to pay back, by ensuring they create Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).

Ogutu noted that when youths have access to loans, they are challenged to start sustainable businesses “through which they can be able to pay back the borrowed capital unlike when it is given to them as a grant,” Ogotu said.

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