The country's youth are set to lose out in the government's Ajira Digital training program after reports cast aspersions on its tenability.
Reports from the Standard on Monday, January 13, indicate that the plan to train one million youth for online jobs might not be tenable due to austerity measures put in place by the government for the last three years.
The Standard informed that in the year ending June 2019, only 360,000 youth have benefitted from training under the program by the ICT ministry against the target of 1 million.
ICT CS Joe Mucheru heaped blame on budget cuts on the shortfall, which he stated, dealt a blow to the plans to curb the unemployment crisis plaguing the country.
He lamented that funds available to the ministry were rechanneled to other sources to settle pending bills that were threatening to cripple other sectors of the government.
"The targets were not met due to budget cuts by 75 percent. The funds obtained were utilized to settle pending bills accrued during the financial year 2016/2017," he was quoted.
The Ajira Digital platform is an ambitious program by the government aimed at encouraging the country's youth to take up online space as a new work station as opposed to depending on traditional jobs.
It aims at providing tools, training, and mentorship needed for the youth to learn to navigate the intricacies of the online work platform.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced austerity measures on September 14, 2018, with a view to bridging budget deficits.
He announced proposals to cut non- priority spendings such as travel, training, and seminars which in his opinion, gobbled up billions of shillings every year.
He reiterated the stance in September 2019 when the government embarked on measures to curb travel and airtime allowance for civil servants.
