How market and financial linkages have boosted incomes for youth groups in coastal Kenya

04 March 2020

Employment opportunities do not come easily for young people in rural areas, making it hard for many to work their way out of poverty.  Faced with limited employment opportunities and growing food insecurity, coastal Kenya is one of the country’s most under-developed areas, with more than 62% of the population living below the poverty line.

Since 2018, Farm Africa’s Cashew and Sesame Value Chain Project, funded by the European Union’s Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa, has offered technical and business training to young people and women in Kwale, Kilifi and Lamu counties to help them start skilled service provision businesses within the cashew and sesame value chains.

So far, 1,093 young people (628 males and 465 females) organised into 64 self-help groups have been trained in biological pest management, nursery establishment and management, and top working of old and diseased cashew nut trees. They have also received support to link to markets and financiers, and are already generating incomes through rendering the services to other community members.

Destiny Youth Group in Kwale county is one of the groups specialising in nursery establishment and management. They grow and sell cashew nut, coconut and orange seedlings. The group relies on social media to market their products whose prices vary from tree to tree, eg a grafted cashew seedling costs Ksh 50 while orange seedlings cost Ksh 40.

“Most of our members were unemployed before we ventured in nursery management. Training in nursery management and disease identification has not only provided a source of income for us but also helped us to create employment for others,” said Francis Kitetu, one of the members.

Farm Africa has linked youth groups undertaking nursery establishment and management to Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) as market outlets for the tree seedlings. The linkages have enabled Kinga Youth Group in Kwale county to sign a contract with KWS on tree seedlings supply, whereby they have managed to sell 20,000 seedlings at Ksh 10 per seedling.

AFA is training the nursery groups in good nursery management and preparing them for certification by Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) and Horticulture Crops Development Authority (HCDA).

Financial linkages have been created to increase access to capital for the expansion of the youth enterprises. Two youth groups in Kwale benefited from the Youth Enterprise Fund totaling Ksh  200,000 (€ 1,801). The Youth Enterprise Fund supports youth with business funds at zero interest.

Through linkages to the National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Project, three youth groups were funded with a total grant amount of Ksh 748,000 (€ 6,738) to support agricultural business activities. One of the groups that benefitted from this is Karibu Ng’ombeni Youth Group in Kilifi County whose 30 members have invested the Ksh 498,000 (€ 4,486) funding in beekeeping.

“Securing this grant made us realise the power of working together. We also realised that our group has a lot of potential which we were not exploiting before,” said Samuel Ngemwa, the group chair.

Farm Africa is working together with Equity Bank through MasterCard Foundation in training youth groups in Kilifi County in budgeting, digital financing and entrepreneurship skills.

The project is funded by the European Union’s Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa. The Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation (SlovakAID) is managing the project’s funds on behalf of the European Union.