Government Agencies Disburse Ksh 34.7 Billion To Special Groups

Special groups have been beneficiaries of at least 34.7 billion shillings of funds from various Government agencies as a report has revealed.

The development groups for the youth, women, and people living with disability have been receiving these funds from the Government to help boost their projects.

These funds were channeled to individuals and enterprises like the Uwezo fund, Youth Enterprise Development Fund, and Women Enterprise Fund reaching at least 2.7 million individuals in the respective groups.

According to a report by the Ministry of Public Service, Youth, and Gender, women have been the most reapers of Government initiated funds scooping about 16 billion shillings in funds.

Since its formation in August 2007, the Women Enterprise Fund has benefitted 1.6 million women in 100,174 groups across Kenya. In 2018, the Women Enterprise disbursed 1.7 billion shillings to women countrywide.

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) established in 2007, gave 12.8 billion to several agencies that provide special programs to enhance youth empowerment. About 1.1 million youths have benefitted from the funds with more than 500,000 youths getting business training.

Uwezo Fund contributed 5.9 billion shillings to the vulnerable groups reaching more than 63,682 youth groups and giving 105 million shillings in 2018 alone.

Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP) that is being implemented in ministries and several countries has offered specific training to 20661 youths, helping more than 12,000 of the trained youths to secure jobs.

8,490 youths have received grants to start and run small businesses with 499 receiving business development services.

“As part of its contribution to the government agenda, the State Department of Youth engaged 47,250 youth in food production and 48,250 youth in planting trees through the Planting Our Future program,” says the report.

16,850 servicemen and women have gone through the National Youth Service program and have been deployed to respective Field units to undertake national duties.

The Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender say it was involved in equipping and transforming 20 youth empowerment centers in 2018, where they were turned to centers of excellence to enhance creativity, nurturing and supporting of youthful talents.