NGPU
August 25, 2023
Business skills to boost confidence of Entrepreneurs with disabilities in Nakuru County
Written by Jeremy Ogolla
Entrepreneurs with disabilities in Nakuru County are set to benefit from a training program that will enable them to acquire new business skills to fully realize their potential.
This comes after the County Government of Nakuru partnered with Strathmore University through a program dubbed Kenya Small Business Development Centres (Kenya SBDC) to help engage people with disabilities (PWDs) in entrepreneurship training programs.
County Trade Development Officer Monica Sitin said the County Administration is ready to work with other stakeholders in assisting PWD entrepreneurs to access skills development and other business support for their survival, development, and innovation as well as enhancing their competitiveness and growth.
“The training program adopted by the County Government and Strathmore University together with other partners will enable persons with disabilities to conquer prejudices, reach economic independence, and fully immerse themselves in all aspects of life that they used to be excluded from,” said Monica Sitin.
Monica said the County administration is readying itself to launch an Enterprise Development Fund geared to providing affordable loan facilities to enterprises and cooperatives, reiterating that the fund will be all-inclusive.
Nakuru SBDC County Coordinator Mr George Makau however noted that the training will aid the empowerment agenda to enable optimum participation of PWD entrepreneurs in ensuring the economic growth of the County.
“The SBDC program has aligned with the Governor’s mandate in ensuring MSMEs increase their productivity and profitability and ultimately attain sustainable development,” said Mr. Makau.
They were speaking in Shabaab ward, Nakuru West Sub-county during a meeting with a section of PWDs to ascertain areas of focus of the upcoming training and capacity building for the entrepreneurs with disabilities.
The training will focus on Record Keeping, Marketing, Financial Management, Tax Application, Business plan, Identification of business ideas, Customer Care, and Credit management among others.
Other stakeholders to come on board to assist in the training are the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the United Bank for Africa (UBA).
According to Nakuru County Statistical Abstract 2022, the total number of registered persons with disability within the 11 sub-counties are more than 2000. The PWDs are categorized by type of disability such as visual, hearing, mobility, cognition, deafness, and albinism.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are officially defined by the government of Kenya (GOK, 2005) as businesses that engage between 1 and 99 employees, cover a range of establishments in almost all sectors of the economy; they operate formally or informally, seasonally or year-round and are located in a number of areas including markets, streets, households or mobile.
Meanwhile, the program aligns with the manifesto of Governor Susan Kihika on ensuring the growth of the MSMEs sector, where she committed to spending Sh1 billion annually to provide micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with access to affordable credit.
