NAIROBI,Kenya Jan 4-The NYOTA empowerment project is being fine-tuned and expanded to benefit over 2 million youth across the country, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has said.
The DP said the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) initiative has been successfully rolled out with 820, 000 youth targeted in its initial phase of implementation.
“The government is looking at possibilities of injecting more resources into this program to ensure we expand it and reach more beneficiaries and impact the lives of many young people.
Currently, we are at 820, 000 beneficiaries but we will double this number and even reach 2 million youth in the long run,” Prof. Kindiki revealed.
The Deputy President on Tuesday at the Official Residence in Karen met respective Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Chief Executive Officers of agencies spearheading the implementation of the NYOTA program to review its rollout in preparation for its expansion.
“We are going to have more young people on board the business support program, on the job experience and recognition of prior learning,” he added.
So far, over 121, 000 young people have benefitted from the Business Grant component. They are each set to receive a total of Sh50, 000 to boost their businesses.
“We are at the tail end of operationalizing component one which is the Business Grant allocated between 5 and 6 billion shillings. We have seen a lot of impact in supporting micro, small medium businesses and startups,” DP noted.
The other components touching on On-the-Job Training, Skills Development, Recognition of Prior Learning and Access to Government Opportunities (AGPO) are also being fine-tuned to be in line with the government’s objectives and priorities as directed by President Ruto.
“We have been able to make significant savings, removed some of the non-essential budget lines, deleted others and reorganized the components. The savings will be deployed to increase the number of beneficiaries,” Prof. Kindiki indicated.
He also said the government will engage the development partner to fully align the project with the administration’s development priorities.
