As part of the 2nd Harambee Prize for ‘Young African Entrepreneurs’.

Objective of the Award:
To help promote conditions for young Africans to start their own businesses, creating self-employment and new jobs for other young people, giving concrete answers to the widespread consequences of youth unemployment such as crime or regional or international migration.

Partner: Strathmore University

Selected project promoter: EMILY BAKHITAH AKOTH
She has an academic background in management, public policy and management, accounting and project management. She has experience in finance and is passionate about youth empowerment, for which she co-founded: ‘Rise and Shine Education Foundation’.

Context:
Women micro-entrepreneurs are an integral part of the Kenyan rural economy. Rural household incomes in Nyanza depend mainly on income from small businesses run by women. However, they face socio-economic barriers that include limited access to business capital and inadequate training in business and financial management. These barriers limit the growth of their businesses and threaten the livelihoods of the families that are mainly supported by these women. Existing financing options are mobile phone-based loans that charge very high interest rates that small women entrepreneurs cannot afford.

Objectives and activities:
The proposal aims to grant a small-scale loan scheme at a rate of 2% (as opposed to 12% of the current local rate) to mothers under a programme run by Rise and Shine Education Foundation. The initiative aims to support mothers with start-up capital to enable them to grow small businesses.
The empowerment of women, through micro-credit, aims to provide them with the tools to become economically independent, self-sufficient and with a positive self-esteem that enables them to cope with any difficult situation and to actively participate in decision-making. The credit provided will be used for: retail shops, flour mills, small-scale production units, breeding poultry, dairy centres.

Contribution: 15,700 euro