NAIROBI, July 29 – President William Ruto’s Cabinet has approved the official rollout of the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) Project, a flagship Sh30 billion youth empowerment initiative targeting over 820,000 vulnerable and unemployed young Kenyans.
The project, co-funded by the Government of Kenya and the World Bank through a USD229 million concessional credit, aims to provide on-the-job training, entrepreneurship support, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) certification, and seed capital for startups.
President William Ruto has defended the flagship initiative that faced funding hitches as key to “restoring dignity to our young people by giving them the skills, experience, and resources to secure decent work and create businesses”.
The programme has already attracted over 1 million applications, with the first cohort of 90,000 youth set to join the On-the-Job Experience programme in August, receiving monthly stipends of KSh6,000, deposited into Haba Haba savings accounts.
Funding crisis threatens momentum
Cabinet’s approval on Tuesday comes against a backdrop of serious funding challenges.
Principal Secretary for MSME Development Susan Mangeni had warned Parliament that NYOTA faces a Sh7.6 billion budget deficit, threatening to derail the government’s ambitious plans and potentially trigger a World Bank pullout.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Committee on Trade and Cooperatives on July 11, Mangeni cautioned the delays could derail the entire plan.
“If the funds are not allocated urgently, the World Bank may redirect resources to other global priorities. This would crush the dreams of young Kenyans who have been banking on NYOTA.”
She revealed that Parliament only allocated Sh1.2 billion for the programme in the current financial year, with just Sh200 million set aside for operations — far below the finding needed to disburse the Sh50,000 startup grants promised to the first and second cohorts.
Urgent action
Parliamentarians expressed concern over what they described as “mismatched planning and execution”, questioning why government solicited applications before securing the necessary funds.
“Why would we advertise the programme and raise expectations when we aren’t ready to deliver? This disconnect risks eroding public trust,” Gichugu MP Gichimu Githinji said.
Mathare MP Anthony Oluoch urged the ministry to consider emergency allocations under Article 223 of the Constitution.
“The Gen Z generation will not wait for the supplementary budget cycle. You may have stoked public hopes to a level you can’t control.”
The NYOTA programme is structured into four components:
- Labour market interventions such as apprenticeships and job placements (USD 82M).
- Entrepreneurship and startup capital support, currently facing the biggest funding shortfall (USD 87M).
- Savings incentives through the Haba Haba scheme (USD 20M).
- County-level employment system strengthening (USD 40M).
