Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has announced a major expansion of the NYOTA youth empowerment programme, saying the government plans to grow the initiative to reach more than two million young people across the country, up from the 820,000 targeted in its first phase.
Speaking on Tuesday at his Official Residence in Karen after a meeting with Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and heads of agencies involved in the programme, Kindiki said the government is fine-tuning the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement initiative to widen its reach and increase its impact on young people. He said discussions are ongoing on how to inject more resources into the programme to allow it to serve more beneficiaries.
“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,” he said. “Currently we are at 820,000 beneficiaries but we will double this number and even reach two million youth in the long run.”
The Deputy President said the planned expansion will allow more young people to benefit from the key areas of the programme, which include business support, on-the-job experience and recognition of prior learning. He noted that these components are central to helping young people gain skills, grow their businesses and access better income opportunities.
“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.
Kindiki revealed that the Business Grant component has already supported more than 121,000 young people, each set to receive Sh50,000 to help grow their enterprises. He said this part of the programme, which has been allocated between Sh5 billion and Sh6 billion, is close to being fully put in place.
“We are at the tail end of operationalizing component one which is the Business Grant allocated between five and six billion shillings. We have seen a lot of impact in supporting micro, small medium businesses and startups,” he said.
He added that other parts of the programme, including on-the-job training, skills development, recognition of prior learning and access to government opportunities under AGPO, are being reviewed to ensure they align with the development goals set by President William Ruto.
The Deputy President said the expansion of the programme has been made possible through budget rationalisation, which has created room for additional funding. He explained that savings were achieved by removing non-essential budget lines and reorganising various components.
“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,” he said.
Kindiki also said the government will work closely with development partners to ensure the programme supports the wider development agenda and continues to offer practical opportunities to young people across the country.
The NYOTA programme is a national initiative aimed at young business owners and focuses on improving access to finance, strengthening small enterprises and supporting steady sources of income. The programme is implemented through a partnership between the government and the World Bank and is valued at Sh5 billion.
