According to the Lands County Executive Rachel Maina, the construction will begin at the Naivasha sub-county with the rest to be constructed in Gilgil, Nakuru East and West, Njoro and Kuresoi Sub-Counties
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 29 – The Nakuru County Government has commissioned the construction of 150 modern market stalls to enable youths set up and operate businesses.
According to the Lands County Executive Rachel Maina, the construction will begin at the Naivasha sub-county with the rest to be constructed in Gilgil, Nakuru East and West, Njoro and Kuresoi Sub-Counties through a Sh38 million commercial infrastructure Memorandum of Understanding with the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF).
She said that the County Government aspires to create an enabling trading environment for the youth.
“The youth in Nakuru need to have some space to do business and the County Government of Nakuru has an agreement with the YEDF for putting up modern kiosks from where they will operate,” she said.
She pointed out that the structures will benefit young people in informal businesses who have resorted to hawking as they lacking trading premises.
Viwandani Member of the County Assembly Eunice Muriithi said the leaders will support this programme as it will empower the youth by providing them with a conducive environment to engage in business and create job opportunities along the value chain of the businesses they are involved in.
On his part, Daniel Mathenge, the Senior Commercial Infrastructure Youth Enterprise Development Fund manager said they are committed to matters of youth empowerment.
Naivasha will get 30 stalls and they will be located at Posta Lane, Main Bus Park and Mama Ngina Street. Gilgil will have 20 stalls, Nakuru Town 70 for both East and West, Njoro 20 and Kuresoi 10.
Besides the commercial infrastructure the project will also see the youth benefit through capacity building to compete with established enterprises: financial, credit, business development and monitoring among others.
Mathenge added that Nakuru is one of the most strategic counties they are partnering with and the county through its Department of Trade has given an assurance that stalls will be allocated fairly.
He also noted that data from the Youth Fund indicates that there are more than 8,000 informal businesses in Nakuru and although the 150 stalls cannot satisfactorily give services but at least it will have some impact.
He added they will keep collecting information from the ground to establish how best they can come up with more intervention measures that are young people oriented.
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