Youth in Agribusiness (Vijabiz).
1100
Beneficiaries
What is VijaBiz?
USTADI Foundation and Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA), have jointly been implementing a project on Youth in Agribusiness – “Youth Economic Empowerment through Agribusiness in Kenya (Vijabiz)” in the counties of Kilifi and Nakuru. The overreaching goal of the project is to create sustainable employment for the rural youth in the counties selected through active engagement in agribusiness for wealth creation and poverty reduction by building entrepreneurship capacity, creating market linkages and added value.
The two-year project targeted to benefit between 100 – 150 groups rural youth groups (reaching out to 2,380 beneficiaries; 30% females) engaged in cereals, dairy and fisheries value chains. Through these groups, at least 1,000 individual small businesses have been supported, with the results being the contribution to the agriculture sector goals of achieving food and nutrition security, income generation, employment and wealth creation, whilst improving rural livelihoods.
Impact
The mentors have interacted with the Vijabiz youth groups, they have reported having learned quite a lot. The learning has translated to real impact. This has been demonstrated by the improved record keeping, improved customer care, improved earnings and jobs created. However, there is still felt need by the groups to have the mentorship extended to be able to implement the developed business plans.
Achievements
Over the 12month period, the following are the achievement realized:
- All 114 Vijabiz assigned to AiRD got mentored over the period.
- A total of 1090 members were mentored in the last quarter. This number may be high given that we have had different members of the group attending different sessions.
- Over the last 12 months ending 2021, attendance has averaged about 1,000 (Male 499, Female 591) beneficiaries mentored each quarter.
- The mentorship sessions have seen the groups learn key business management skills including: Record keeping, customer care, use of ICT for enhance marketing and business negotiation skills.
- Through the sessions, groups were supported to develop own business plans. Besides the groups fine-tuned the business plans and submitted them for the Vijabiz grants with 71 groups qualifying for grants.
