Thousands of Kenyan youth awaiting disbursement under the World Bank-funded Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP) were on Monday, July 8, told that the program had been discontinued.
The statement was made by the Micro and Small Enterprises Authority (MSEA) where the project was domiciled.
MSEA while announcing the end of the project apologised to Kenyan youth for the delay in updating on the status of remaining grants.
“After 6 successful years of supporting youth employment and entrepreneurship, KYEOP's last disbursement was done from December 2023 to February 29, 2024, when the project ended,” Kenyans waiting for the disbursement were told.
MSEA noted that the last cohort of youth had received Ksh20,000 in the first tranche and had not received their second disbursement before the closure.
“These youth will be part of the initial beneficiaries of the successor project and clear communication will be sent to them individually via direct short message in due course,” MSEA stated.
The project had enrolled over 165,000 youth before its sudden closure and directly benefited over 300,000 people throughout the republic.
Under the program, Kenyans were provided with business development skills, start-up grants as well as essential employability skills.
World Bank started the project as a way to increase employment and other earning opportunities for targeted vulnerable youth while placing a premium on human development as well as supporting inclusive growth.
World Bank through the program also piloted a results-based financing model with training providers and social enterprises to reach hard-to-serve youth.
Earlier, the World Bank had announced plans to start another project called National Youth Employment and Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA).
NYOTA was proposed to scale KYEOP’s existing interventions by expanding the package of interventions to provide beneficiaries with savings opportunities and leaving room for innovation to create sustainable youth employment systems across the country.
