The Founding Dean of Strathmore University Business School, Dr George Njenga, has called for a shift in how Kenyans, especially young people, understand wealth creation, urging a move away from short-term hustling toward structured enterprise built around cooperatives and sustainability.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Friday, Dr Njenga said the size of a business should not merely be judged by staff numbers but by the bank account and the opportunity.
“In the long run, if you really want to know what micro is, you will define it by the bank account and opportunity,” he said, arguing that sustainability and growth prospects determine whether a venture remains small or grows into a lasting institution.
He warned that some income streams, though lucrative, lack durability. Referring to artisanal mining, he said miners tend to get a lot of millions of dollars but their spike and the vein of assets on the ground tends to die very quickly, attributing this to failure to invest in science and long-term planning.
By contrast, he said small-scale farmers often possess an incredible capacity to grow very big, stressing that opportunity must be assessed alongside income.
Dr Njenga, also the lead at Africa Economic Development Hub, identified cooperatives as a key pillar of economic empowerment, describing them as “the way to go” if Kenya seeks structures that can distribute and equalize people and give them their rights according to productivity.”
He argued that cooperatives have been misunderstood and mishandled since independence, but remain central to the economy. “You will find that cooperatives are what make them the 70 percent producers of the Kenyan economy,” he said.
Explaining different models, he cited savings and credit cooperatives, production cooperatives such as dairy unions, multi-purpose cooperatives, and apex unions that bring sector players together.
Looking abroad, he pointed to continental Europe. “Go to a place like Denmark, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands, or Switzerland. What runs those countries? It’s cooperative, and they still hold that very dearly.”
He added, “Most of the banks in continental Europe were circles, small circles of various tribes and they have formed very large banks.”
Turning to youth enterprise, Njenga said his team had trained more than 15,000 young people over five years, with support from USAID between 2019 and January 2024.
“For every dollar we invested in mentoring, developing, seeking finance, we actually got the youth to get financing of more than Sh25.8 billion,” he said. “For every dollar we invested, we calculated Sh516 in return.”
He cited examples of transformation, including a woman in Mombasa who began producing spices in her kitchen and now has factories, and another running one of the largest avocado production factories in the EPZ, the biggest in Africa without any doubt.
Njenga also expressed concern about Kenya’s research institutions. Visiting agricultural research facilities, he said he found an amazing capability of scientists lying idle in their shelves because the government can’t do business.
“I have never been so sad in my life,” he said, lamenting that research was “not connected to value” but to publishing and funding cycles.
For Dr Njenga, the path forward lies in connecting science, cooperatives and youth energy into structured, scalable enterprises. “You shouldn’t hustle. You should actually build,” he said.
