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IDEA Program Kenya
Promotion of youth entrepreneurship in agribusiness for economic development
IDEA Program Kenya provides incubation training and mentorship to 24 entrepreneurs developing resilient businesses.
Funded by
Stronger value chains
Kenya has made significant economic reforms that have contributed to sustained economic growth, social development, and political stability gains over the past decade. However, its key development challenges still include poverty, inequality, continued weak private sector investment, and the vulnerability of the economy to internal and external shocks.
From 2015 to 2019, Kenya’s economy achieved broad-based growth averaging 4.7% per year, significantly reducing poverty. In 2020, the COVID-19 shock hit the economy hard, disrupting international trade and transport, tourism, and urban services activity, in particular. Fortunately, the agricultural sector, a cornerstone of the economy, remained resilient, helping to limit the contraction in GDP to only 0.3%.
IDEA Program Kenya is developed with the Opportunities for Youth in Africa (OYA) Programme, a joint initiative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). OYA aims at accelerating job creation and entrepreneurship in agriculture and agribusiness. As such, one of the areas of action of the OYA Programme is to provide capacity-building to youth and incubation centers through demand-driven technical and vocational trainings.
How does the model work?
OYA set two IDEA Centers to be our implementation partners and undergo a “Training of Trainers” program that builds their entrepreneurship program management and strengthen their incubation capacity. This training consists of 6 sessions covering topics from creating a mentors network, mastering the IDEA platform to facilitating best practices.
Bridge for Billions, in collaboration with the OYA Programme, develops incubation programmes with 2 IDEA centers: Asenti and Lakehub.
With the collaboration of our program partners, we selected 24 Kenyan entrepreneurs and 56 local and international mentors to participate in the IDEA program. All of them were trained and onboarded during Kickoff Day.
As part of the program, all founders access structured guidance in 8 business tools, constant support from the incubation management team, personalized weekly mentorship, and a global community of founders, workshops, and sectorial resources.
Asenti and Lakehub provide local support and knowledge to the founders, additional in-person workshops and resources, and physical space for founders to work from.
Entrepreneurs work in teams to develop their businesses while working weekly with volunteer mentors through the IDEA platform.
Once the program is complete, entrepreneurs have bankable and validated business plans and a support network to continue their entrepreneurial journey.
Our impact in Kenya
24
enterprises were accepted into the program
45%
of enterprises belong to female founders
17
enterprises will still be active 1 year after the program has ended
70
jobs will have been created two years after the program has ended
25
mentors were accepted into the program
Where are the entrepreneurs’ from?
Entrepreneurship support everywhere
Entrepreneurship opportunities for all
Sectors of the entrepreneurs
Some of the entrepreneurs and mentors from IDEA Program Kenya
Entrepreneurs
Aqua Hub Kenya
Aqua Hub Kenya is a startup that leverages technology to provide affordable climate-smart irrigation technologies to smallholder farmers in the quest of increasing resilient crop production and net returns.
Created a pool of over 200 farmers and influenced young people to join agribusiness.
Mary Wairibu Muchai
Aqua Hub Kenya Founder
Farm Mall
Farm Mall is an agribusiness platform that allows food producers to sell their products online.
They launched their website and have already started to sell online.
Julia Mumbe
Farm Mall Founder
Mwirichia Coffee Estate
Seeking to produce organic coffee and advocate for a healthy lifestyle through eating organic foods in her community. The farm has over 6000 coffee trees each producing an average of 2 kgs per tree. They are working to revamp the farm and increase the production to between 5kgs-10 kgs per tree as they improve the quality to be Grade 1.
Kellen Njagi
Mwirichia Coffee Estate Founder
Goodman Farm
With the objective to promote goat milk as a more nutritious substitute for cow milk and the projection to incorporate other products like butter, cheese, and yogurt into offering in the near future.
They started operations with 3 goats but their projections indicate 12 goats by the end of 2022.
John Omuny
Goodman Farm Founder
Mentors
Kenya
Business Development Manager at Crop Nutrition Laboratory Services
Motivation: I am passionate about agriculture, seeing what it can do if well planned to improve the lives, especially of smallholder farmers in Africa. I see a future where there is no hunger if most of the agricultural plans in Africa are implemented.”
Kenya
Motivation: “I have a passion for seeing entrepreneurs grow and navigate their ideas in the marketplace and have a positive impact on the community at large.”
Kenya
CEO & Founder at Afarmers Media
Motivation: “Empowering Smallholder farmers to produce safe, healthy, and affordable food.”
Kenya
Head Of Training- Agribusiness Division at Miramar International College
Motivation: “I am passionate about Entrepreneurship Development, and I want to be part of the people who are developing the next generation of entrepreneurs in Africa, as well as help in the creation of decent jobs.”
With the support of
UNIDO and Bridge for BIllions designed each entrepreneurship program taking into account the most critical value chains for each country, and found entrepreneurs working on the most critical challenges for the sector with the support of local IDEA Centers.
Okore Rd, Kisumu, Kenya
LakeHub
Program Administrator
Purity Akoth
LakeHub Academy is a web development program for talented young people and other disadvantaged groups who want to power Africa’s 4th Industrial Revolution. LakeHub has the mission to fill the talent gap within the tech industry.
Nairobi, Kenya
Asenti
Program Administrator
Calvin Jodisi
African Summit on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASENTI) is an annual forum that brings SMEs, MMEs, Startups, and different stakeholders for intensive interaction, networking, and training on entrepreneurship and Innovation from across Africa.
See what incubation managers say
“This training I received as Incubation Manager and the program we operated in Guinea was an amazing experience.At first we had fears about doing an incubation program mostly online but actually the participants found it very well structured and the tools really changed their mindset.
Having access to a diverse pool of mentors has also been invaluable. I learned a lot and I’d like to do another such program myself, and see it replicated in other countries.”
Mohamed Lamine MagassoubaProgram Manager from Jathropha Hub IDEA CenterHaving access to a diverse pool of mentors has also been invaluable. I learned a lot and I’d like to do another such program myself, and see it replicated in other countries.”
We are looking for partners!
IDEA Program Kenya is on the lookout for public and private institutional partners and donors to make the program sustainable and amplify its impact over the next few years. Send us an email and make a difference in developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem of your country or region.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) partnered with Bridge for Billions to create IDEA, an online program to connect young entrepreneurs with mentors from all over the world to accelerate the growth of new entrepreneurship communities and foster an entrepreneurial culture.
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