The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved $60 million for Kenya to support unemployed youths in the country. The Kenya Youth Empowerment Project (KYEP) will support Kenya’s efforts to increase access to youth-targeted temporary employment programs and to improve youth employability.
Youth in Kenya face serious challenges, including high rates of unemployment and underemployment. The overall unemployment rate for youth is double the adult average.
“Kenya, like many other African countries, is struggling to manage a growing population of youth, of whom about one in five are neither in school nor working. While Kenya’s youth can be an asset and a source of growth, if they are neglected or marginalized they can also be a potent source of crime and violence,” said Johannes Zutt, the World Bank’s Country Director for Kenya.
“Working with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), among others, the Youth Empowerment project aims to provide disadvantaged unemployed youth with opportunities to acquire training, apprenticeships, and short-term jobs that will improve their long-term employability and transform them into productive members of society,” he added in Nairobi on Thursday.
Already Kenya has developed a “Marshal Plan” for youth unemployment in 2007, emphasizing the importance of a coordinated and multi-sectoral approach to addressing the problem of youth unemployment and youth idleness.
The KYEP project will focus on labor-intensive works and social services, private sector internships and training ; and capacity building and policy development.
The credit is approved on standard terms of a 40-year maturity with a 10-year grace period provided by the International Development Association (IDA)—the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
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