Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Principal Secretary Susan Mange’ni has announced that the disbursement of the second tranche of the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) fund will begin from next week.
Speaking during an interview, PS Mang’eni said the disbursement will kick off on Monday, April 20, 2026. PS Mang’eni noted that the beneficiaries will receive text messages by the end of the week regarding the second phase of the NYOTA fund disbursement.
“The second phase will take place starting next week, we are looking at Monday, April 20, 2026. We are planning to do it across the country; it will not be phased out like the first phase. This is because beneficiaries have already completed mentorship, and we are well prepared. Before the end of this week, beneficiaries will receive a message,” said the MSMEs PS.
The NYOTA Project is a flagship initiative of the state in collaboration with the World Bank, that seeks to address youth unemployment through practical, inclusive, and results-oriented interventions.
NYOTA is structured around four strategic components designed to address multiple dimensions of youth unemployment:
Component One: Enhancing Employability through structured apprenticeships, skills training, and recognition of prior learning (RPL), enabling youth without formal qualifications to receive national certification based on their existing skills and experience.
Component Two: Supporting Entrepreneurship managed by the Micro and Small Enterprises Authority (MSEA), providing Sh50,000 in start-up funding to youth.
Component Three: Promoting Savings Culture through the NSSF’s Haba Haba scheme, with funds disbursed in two tranches and Sh3,000 from each tranche automatically deposited into savings accounts.
Component Four: Strengthening Institutional Support systems to ensure sustainable impact and long-term youth development.
Structured Disbursement Model
The NYOTA programme employs a carefully designed disbursement structure aimed at fostering both immediate business activity and long-term financial security. Of the Ksh.25,000 allocated to each beneficiary, Ksh.22,000 is credited directly to each recipient’s Pochi la Biashara account—a mobile money wallet specifically created for business transactions.
The remaining Ksh.3,000 is deposited into the beneficiaries’ Haba na Haba Savings Account, which is managed by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). This mandatory savings component is designed to cultivate financial discipline and create a foundation for long-term wealth accumulation among young entrepreneurs.
According to government officials, the structured disbursement model—combining direct business capital with mandatory savings—is intended to promote accountability, financial discipline, and long-term economic sustainability among participants. The integration with NSSF also connects young entrepreneurs to Kenya’s formal social security system, potentially providing access to additional benefits and financial products.
Beneficiaries are expected to utilize the business grants strictly in accordance with approved business plans developed during mandatory training sessions. The programme provides continuous technical support to ensure effective fund utilization and business sustainability.
In the second phase of the NYOTA project, beneficiaries will receive an additional Ksh.25,000, bringing the total support per entrepreneur to Ksh.50,000. This staged disbursement approach allows project implementers to assess business progress and provide corrective support before releasing additional capital, while also creating accountability mechanisms that encourage responsible fund management.
World Bank Partnership and Programme Scale
The NYOTA programme represents a five-year flagship partnership between the Government of Kenya and the World Bank, valued at Ksh.5 billion. This substantial investment reflects international recognition of Kenya’s youth unemployment challenges and the potential for structured entrepreneurship support to generate sustainable employment and economic growth.
The programme is designed to support 100,000 young people across the country, with at least 70 beneficiaries drawn from each of Kenya’s 1,450 wards. This distribution model ensures geographic equity and reaches youth in both urban and rural settings, from densely populated metropolitan areas to remote constituencies that have historically lacked access to formal financial services and entrepreneurship support.
Building on Successful Precedents.
NYOTA builds upon the foundation established by the Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP), which successfully reached 310,889 vulnerable youth, with 50% being women. KYEOP achieved an impressive 86% employment rate among beneficiaries, providing valuable lessons for NYOTA’s design and implementation.
The success of KYEOP, which helped develop 50 new trade testing standards covering emerging labor market occupations, demonstrates the World Bank’s continued confidence in Kenya’s youth development capabilities and institutional capacity.
Addressing Skills-Jobs Mismatch
Kenya’s Economic Survey 2025 reveals that while the economy created 782,300 new jobs in 2024, this was lower than the 848,200 jobs created in 2023, with most opportunities concentrated in the informal sector. NYOTA’s Recognition of Prior Learning component specifically targets this challenge by certifying skills that youth have acquired through informal apprenticeships and self-learning.
The program acknowledges that many Kenyan youth possess valuable skills that lack formal recognition, creating barriers to employment and entrepreneurship. By providing national certification for these competencies, NYOTA opens pathways to formal employment and business opportunities.
Economic Context
Kenya faces key development challenges including poverty, inequality, youth unemployment, and vulnerability to economic shocks. With over 70% of Kenya’s population under 35 years old, the demographic dividend represents both an enormous opportunity and a significant challenge. NYOTA positions Kenya to harness this potential workforce productively, potentially transforming demographic pressure into economic advantage.
The NYOTA programme has garnered strong support from county governments, which have pledged complementary interventions to maximize programme impact. Governors have announced various support measures including business license fee waivers, provision of business spaces within county-operated markets, access to business development services, improved market linkages, and the introduction of award programmes to recognize outstanding NYOTA entrepreneurs.
Implementation Architecture and Institutional Coordination
NYOTA is implemented through a multi-agency approach coordinated by the State Department for Youth Affairs and Creative Economy. Partner agencies include the State Department for Labour and Skills Development, State Department for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, National Industrial Training Authority (NITA), National Employment Authority, Micro and Small Enterprises Authority (MSEA), and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).
This institutional architecture reflects the complexity of youth employment challenges, which cannot be addressed by any single agency but require coordinated action across skills development, labor market intermediation, enterprise support, and social protection systems.
Principal Secretary for MSMEs Development, Susan Mang’eni, has emphasized that the project is designed to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable youth through enhanced employability, expansion of job opportunities, support for a youth savings culture, and improved access to markets. “We target to benefit young people in all wards. It is gender-inclusive, with emphasis on 50-50 gender parity,” she noted.
