The overall winner of the recently launched Plug Mtaani business competition programme for the youth will be awarded Sh10 million.

Plug Mtaani National Coordinator Geoffrey Kilonzo said the programme targets youth who can transform various sectors in every county and is aimed at enabling them to move from being job seekers to job creators.

Speaking in Eldoret during a one-day sensitization meeting with youths from Uasin Gishu County, Kilonzo said the award will go to a youth who will pitch the best innovative and sustainable business idea nationally.

According to Kilonzo, the first runners-up with pocket Sh5 million while the second runners-up will take home Sh2.5 million.

He said Plug Mtaani, a consortium working with the Ministry of Trade through the Kenya Investment Authority intends to use up to Sh130 million to train, capacity build and award youths drawn from all the counties within the next 10 years.

“The plug Mtaani business idea is designed to nurture the talents of young entrepreneurs by training and capacity building them on how to generate innovative and sustainable business ideas as one way of addressing the 61 per cent of the youth who are currently unemployed, underemployed challenge,” said Kilonzo.

“This is a continuous programme for the next ten years; we aim to train the youth also on how to package the business idea into a bankable business plan that will help them to access credit either from financial institutions or from their respective county governments,” he added

Kilonzo said the programme will have three components focusing on training on innovation, packaging their business plans and coaching on how to scale up their plans.

From next year, Kilonzo said, Plug Mtaani will take investors, local and international to every county where the youths can pitch their innovation ideas before the investors. “This way the youth may interest an investor with his or her business idea, and end up getting financial and mentorship support,” he said.

“Mentorship and coaching will be availed to the youth,” he said adding that they target to train 200 youth from every County, and if the idea succeeds by at least 70 per cent, with each creating at least four jobs, the programme will impact more than 200,000 livelihoods directly or indirectly across the country.

Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii called on the county youth participating in the competition from his county to put their best foot forward and bring the awards home as the County’s slogan reads “the champions”.