National Youth Council Three youth were this week announced as winners of the National Youth Council’s Fursa Vs Economic Recovery Challenge for their innovative ideas. From an initial group of over 1,000 youth innovators who were provided with training supported by the UK-Kenya Tech Hub , the winning three were announced by Principal Secretary for Youth Affairs, Charles Sunkuli, and take home MatePad Pro devices courtesy of Huawei.
The three winners are:
> Ronald Yegon with his online marketplace to sell seedlings and trees,
Victor Nzau with a business that recycles discarded leather and upcycles it into products to sell, and
James Mbogo who addresses problems of low quality seeds by growing and certifying high quality seeds and seedlings for farmers along with training.
President Kenyatta congratulated the winners of Fursa Vs Economic Recovery Challenge. He expressed this as evidence of the great potential of the youth in this country. Noting that embracing technology has proven to be the avenue that our youth can make a living and transform their lives. “Today 1,300 youth have received training through this program and 50 will get devices to help them turn their ideas into reality”.
His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta, appreciated the partners who made this possible including Huawei who have shown their commitment by supporting the competition for a second year running and the UK government through UK Kenya Tech Hub along with Kenya Airways, Telkom, Post Bank and ILT Academy. “Thank you once again for being part of the change by empowering our Kenyan youth and the development of the country.”
Principal Secretary for Youth Affairs, Charles Sunkuli, CBS, spoke at the event about the potential for youth in Kenya: “Our youth have tremendous potential, great ideas, passion, and willingness to apply themselves to improving not only their own lives, but those of others and of the whole country. At the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, we are very committed to helping youth. We were able to reach youth at grassroots level all over the country, provide them with training, local champions to provide support, mentoring, and technology to help them turn their ideas into concepts, ready to then turn into actual products”.
As he announced the winners he added: “As we award the winners today, I want to thank our partners for this initiative. Huawei, who was with us last year, and is again with us this year, […]