Laikipia County Governor Ndiritu Muriithi has embarked on an ambitious plan to have the daily average incomes of every person start from Ksh2,000 which would translate to Ksh60,000 monthly.
This would be an increase from the current average daily income which has consistently increased from Ksh576 in 2017 to Ksh 754 in 2019.
While releasing the county labour report 2021, the county head stated that he would focus on employment creation with a goal of reducing the unemployment rate to about 3% in the medium term.
"The county has already put measures to creating more employment opportunities. First, the Laikipia Innovation programme (LIDP) is fostering the emergence of new businesses and promoting the growth of already existing ones," he stated.
Muriithi stated that so far 459 enterprises had been identified and supported through the promotion of their products, certification processes and improved market access.
He further lauded the Enterprise Development Programme in the county through the increased budgetary allocation of Ksh73 million and training of 200 business development officers and recognition of enterprise as a key performance indicator targeting businesses for financial support.
He also stated that the budgetary support to other sectors like infrastructure, agriculture, trade, and water was geared towards creating a conducive environment for business growth through better infrastructure, water for production and improvement of markets.
According to the Laikipia County Statistical Abstract 2020, the licensed businesses in the county had generated an increase in employees from 22,175 in 2018 to 31,016 in 2019 representing a 40% increment.
Agriculture was the main economic activity with 66% of employees, followed by other service activities at 14% while wholesale and retail trade come third at 3.2%.
The construction sector accounted for 2.4% of the workforce while the rest of the employees are fairly distributed across the other economic activities.
From January to November 2020, the county has realized an additional 2,177 employees in the registered businesses with the wholesale, retail trade, repairs of motor vehicle accounting for 47.3% of the increase (1,029 additional employees), followed by accommodation, food activities at 25.7% and professional, scientific and technical activities at 11%.
The labour force (age bracket of 15-64 years) in the county stood at 250,297 persons, representing 48.3% of the total population.
The number of employed persons stood at 237,772 representing an employment-population ratio of 79.7% and the number of unemployed stood at 12,525
The inactive population (not in the labour force) stood at 47,923 while the labour force participation rate stood at 83.9%.
