Youth in Laikipia have been urged to take advantage of Sh16 million loan kitty set aside by the County Government, to start businesses.
Laikipia County Executive Committee member (CECM) for Trade, Tourism and Cooperatives, Biwott Kisorio, said the government is committed to empower youth by giving out funds for startup at Six percent interest rates annually.
“Our aim is not Profit but to empower youth in Laikipia. We have rolled out capacity building. We want to tell the youth they should not despair, government is ready to support them,” said Kisorio, pointing out that only youth below 35 years old were eligible to apply.
He was speaking to the media at a youth entrepreneurship summit in Nanyuki that saw about 200 youth in business drawn from all areas of Laikipia participate.
Kisorio told the youth to develop a saving culture aimed at securing their future.
“Start saving as early as now the little money that you get,” the CECM urged.
At the same time, he warned youth against using forged government documents when doing businesses to evade paying taxes, noting that once caught, the law will take its course.
President, Youth in business, Cyrus Kiarie, lauded the hustle fund initiative, where he noted it had been a nightmare due to lack of financial support for people willing to startup businesses in the country.
“The business environment hasn’t been very friendly to young people since not many institutions agree to finance startup. We want to thank the government for the just launched hustler fund and hope youth will take advantage,” said Kiarie.
Kiarie appealed to counties to ease business doing for youth targeting to create job opportunities.
He noted, it is a challenge for young entrepreneurs to get proper business licenses due to stringent requirements.
