NGPU February 2, 2023

Nakuru Partners with USAID’s Kenya Small Business Development Centers Program to Train Cooperatives

Written by Jeremy Ogolla

The County Government of Nakuru, through the Department of Trade, Tourism and Cooperatives, and USAID’s Kenya Small Business Development Centers (Kenya SBDC) program have partnered to train Coffee Cooperatives leaders from Nakuru County.

The training aims to empower Cooperative leaders to acquire skills and deepen their knowledge of Leadership and Governance, Record Management, and Compliance.

The Chief Officer of Cooperatives, Nakuru County, Martin Kagai, noted that high-quality skills and behaviour training remain one of the sector’s proven methods that the county administration will adopt for increased customer satisfaction and sales growth for coffee farmers.

“As coffee quality becomes increasingly important in the coffee sector, training the leaders of the cooperatives is critical to the sector’s long-term success,” said Mr Kagai.

Mr Kagai who was speaking while officiating the training held at Kenya Assemblies of God (KAG) Youth Center, Maili Sita in Bahati Sub-county, applauded the Kenya SBDC and the Directorate of Cooperatives for their move to empower cooperatives’ leadership.

He further noted that the action is in line with Nakuru County Governor H.E Susan Kihika’s agenda of helping Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from exploitation by unscrupulous middlemen.

The training attracted leadership from seven coffee cooperatives in the County: Jumatatu, Solai, Ndemu, Mutungati, Mandizi, Kiremba, and Wikurie.

Cooperative Education and Training is one of the principles of the cooperative directorate which seeks to provide Education and Training for cooperative members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so that they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperative. Moreso, training the cooperatives’ leaders enables them to have skills, knowledge, and understanding to allow them to make decisions beneficial to the interests of the cooperative and its members.

The Director of the Cooperative, Madam Josephine Ngandu, said the training would see all the coffee cooperatives and stakeholders inculcate and improve their trading principles, systems, and strategies.

Nakuru SBDC County Coordinator Mr George Makau noted that the SBDC program has aligned with the Governor’s mandate in ensuring MSMEs increase their productivity and profitability and ultimately attain sustainable development. This will essentially help the county by increasing its tax revenues.

“As a program, we are keen to customize solutions to every MSME to ensure they reach their potential. If an MSME’s challenge is access to markets, we work with them to ensure they get access to markets,’’ said Mr Makau.

Mr Makau noted that Kenya SBDC is leveraging partnerships with MSMEs’ critical public and private organizations stakeholders to work together to ensure MSMEs grow and thrive.

Training helps leaders to provide a constructive and enabling environment for good governance to thrive. Good governance, the primary ingredient of a responsive and democratic structure, is premised upon, among other things, participation, equity and inclusiveness, accountability, responsiveness, transparency, and consensus building.

On behalf of the participants, the Chair of Coffee Cooperatives, Peter Wanyeki, thanked the County under H.E Governor Susan Kihika for organizing the training.

Indeed, the training was an eye-opener, which he said has inspired them to become more organized, confident, and professional in trading and managing their finances as coffee stakeholders.

The County administration under the leadership of H.E Governor Susan Kihika in its blueprint has prioritized creating a friendly environment for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through policy and tax regime reforms and elimination of non-tariff barriers to trade.

The Kenya Small Business Development Centers (Kenya SBDC) is a five-year program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is implemented by Strathmore University Business School (SBS).

The program will strengthen Kenya’s economic competitiveness and prospects for sustained growth by establishing a certified network of Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs). SBS will build linkages between Kenyan and U.S Small and Medium Enterprises to transfer best practices and proven models from the U.S. -network of SBDCs. To read more about the program, click here