Entrenching Entrepreneurship Through UWEZO Fund

It is a big welcome to Uwezo Fund, the latest addition to the efforts of entrepreneurship development that fundamentally yields continued employment and wealth creation. Definitely, Job and wealth creation capable of contributing to increased tax revenue may be necessary now, more than ever before. With a total of 290 members of parliament, 47 women representatives, 10 Members representing special interest groups, 67 County senators, 47 County Governors including deputies and countless county representatives, one can only fathom the financial burden we placed on ourselves, upon the elections of March 4th 2013. That is when the legislative section of our current constitution was effectively implemented. Substantially, we acquired more than double the previous 222 leaders of the legislative arm of our national leadership.

More still, these are stakeholders who, as has now been proven will go to any length to fix their own perks, the full weight of which is borne by the taxpayer. Any wonder then that the treasury has to work overdrive to sustain the now hefty wage bills? That may no doubt have culminated to the hurried implementation of the now seemingly controversial VAT bill that aims to raise some KES 10 billion. The same has transferred the tax burden to the poor who instead, need to be cushioned from anything that could further increase the risk of not having food on the table.

Furthermore, that we are a spendthrift nation cannot be gainsaid. Our export base may never have at any one time exceeded our imports, no matter the efforts. That is probably with the exception of the days of the black gold of the 1970s, when the price of coffee skyrocketed for a short span. That was thankfully due to frost attacks in Brazil, the world’s leading producer of the commodity. Conspicuously, we uncontrollably import luxury fuel guzzlers, fuel itself, electronics, clothing, machinery, spare parts, foods and many more to satisfy our well entrenched culture of consuming foreign brands. Seemingly therefore, we may only be surviving as a nation through consistently bridging the gap with borrowed foreign exchange reserves or how else?

Hopefully however, this import/export deficit could be cushioned by the commercial exploitation of the oil finds in the Turkana County, though it may take some time to yield national benefits. Naturally, the same may take many more years to trickle down to the ordinary folks. Consequently, shouldn’t we therefore embrace more sustainable avenues that could add to economic prosperity for all?

Indeed, boosting youth entrepreneurship growth especially through the recently introduced Uwezo Fund may no doubt be exciting. But, is this top down approach of developing entrepreneurship sustainable? This may be so to some, but there seems to be a lot more that needs to be done.

Realistically, entrepreneurship was some years ago recognized as the global engine of poverty eradication through employment and wealth creation.  Upon embracing this, the government of Kenya initiated the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Women Enterprise Development Fund and many other policy backed interventions. These efforts have seen the turnover of a revolving fund reach close to KES 12 billion.

The new Uwezo Fund adds KES 6 billion to entrepreneurship development, which will largely benefit youth and women groups.  That includes those already there as well as the ones preparing to venture into entrepreneurship. A careful study of the implementation of this fund gives the impression that the wheel is not being re-invented in any way. My widely publicized concept that was adopted in the implementation and disbursement of the earlier fund still holds, even in the case of the Uwezo Fund. It is only that there may be more funds at the disposal of the beneficiary stakeholders. Further, they will enjoy policy backing that allocates 30 % of all government procurements to youth particularly. But, is that all?

When conducting an entrepreneurship research early in the current millennium, which was eventually published in an international business journal, I came across some very interesting findings, whose dynamics have not changed much.  A casual analysis of the economies of the world’s greatest nations for instance, reveals that they are fundamentally driven by entrepreneurship.  Once entrepreneurship becomes deep rooted, people generate employment and income for themselves. The benefits eventually spill over to the national economy, obviously through payment of taxes.

Further, the entrepreneurial culture in America for example is well entrenched. The propensity of the citizens to voluntarily venture into entrepreneurship is such that demand for labour is insatiable. In fact, they are unable to acquire this resource within their own boundaries. That was indeed, the genesis of the famous Green Card concept. It was meant to attract cheap and voluntary labour, especially from Africa, Central and South America.

Compare this to our own circumstances, whereby people largely venture into self employment, let alone entrepreneurship by cheer default. The school system invaluably prepares students for life in salaried employment.  Thus, those who voluntarily deviate from that course are exemptions to the rule. Obviously, some prosper to great lengths whereas others fall by the way side.

That probably explains why the success rate in entrepreneurship is only 30% in the first 3 years, which reduces to 15% by the 5^th year. But, with the government support through funding and policy framework support, the failure rate could probably subside.  Nonetheless, support for entrepreneurship growth should not end with the current top down approach efforts. There is need to cascade entrepreneurship growth through entrenching its culture right across the entire population spectrum.  How can this be achieved?

Let those undergoing early childhood, primary school, secondary and even university education get a good grasp of both theoretical and practical entrepreneurship training. That is a superb approach to unleashing the potential of continued creativity and innovation that lies within the national humanity. Indeed, every member of the population anywhere is variously talented, only requiring knowledge and skills on how to exploit their abilities through entrepreneurship. Indeed, we have potential for sustainably and purposefully growing our own great entrepreneurs akin to Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and more.