A total of 5,880 young entrepreneurs from Mombasa, Kwale and Taita-Taveta counties will today receive KSh147 million in NYOTA Business Start-Up Capital at a ceremony attended by President William Ruto at Jomo Kenyatta Showground in Mombasa.
The beneficiaries have been drawn from 70 wards in the three counties: 30 wards in Mombasa, 20 in Kwale, and another 20 in Taita-Taveta.
Under the NYOTA Business Start-Up Capital component, each beneficiary will receive KSh25,000 in the first phase. Of this amount, KSh22,000 will be credited directly to each beneficiary’s mobile phone accounts while KSh3,000 will be deposited into a Haba na Haba Savings Account managed by the National Social Security Fund.
In the second phase, each beneficiary will receive an additional KSh25,000, bringing the total start-up capital to KSh50,000 for each of the 121,000 young entrepreneurs nationally.
The disbursement of the funds follows the successful completion of a mandatory four-day business skills training, which equipped the young businesspeople with practical skills to start and grow businesses.
The National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) programme is a key pillar of the government’s youth empowerment agenda, aimed at expanding access to funds, strengthening entrepreneurship, and creating sustainable livelihoods for young people across the country.
With the event in Mombasa today, young entrepreneurs from 44 counties will have benefited from the funds.
Next week, the remaining three north-eastern counties of Mandera, Wajir and Garissa will be covered, completing the disbursement of business grants which is th3 first component of NYOTA.
Already, opportunities for the second component called On-the-Job Experience, has been advertised.
Through this initiative, 90,000 beneficiaries will be identified and attached to master craftsmen in carpentry, masonry, plumbing, and electrification, among others, for six months.
They will be paid a KSh6,000 monthly stipend for the period of attachment.
To register, dial *254#, select NYOTA and On-the-Job Experience.
