USAID’s Kenya Small Business Development Centers Conducts Induction of County Staff to Start Operations in the Six Implementing Counties

The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Kenya Small Business Development Centers Program (Kenya SBDC) and Strathmore University Business School conducted induction training for the newly recruited county staff of the six implementing counties of Kiambu, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Isiolo, and Makueni. To ensure all the targeted MSMEs in the implementing counties get access to the services offered by the Program, six county Small Business Development Centers were strategically set up in the six counties with the help of the respective county governments.

Before deciding on the areas of intervention in the six implementing counties, the Program initially conducted situational analysis across the counties to identify the prioritized value chains, capacity gaps of the MSMEs, opportunities available, and areas of intervention for the Program. Data validation workshops followed after that, which attracted different key stakeholders to verify if the data collected was a true reflection of the MSMEs landscape in the various counties. With few recommendations from the key stakeholders, the data was confirmed to be an accurate presentation of MSMEs in the six counties.

The People and Culture Manager, Stella Mwangi, and the Quality Assurance Manager, Roy Were, led the newly recruited staff to be integrated and showed them the systems, procedures, culture, values, and the organization itself. The team got initiated in the expectations and performance by helping them understand their role and how it fits into the company, moreso in advancing the MSMEs empowerment in their respective counties.

Additionally, the Apex Kenya SBDC team took the newly recruited staff through the Kenya SBDC Program and its contextualization to meet the needs of the MSMEs in Kenya to enable them to be locally and globally competitive and, ultimately, increase their productivity and profitability.

MSMEs play a vital role in Kenya’s economy. However, MSMEs are usually frequently confronted with challenges like difficulties accessing adequate, affordable, and timely credit, ineffective marketing due to inadequate resources, and the non-availability of a skilled workforce. Additionally, small businesses face challenges such as a lack of collateral to obtain a loan from financial institutions, pushing them to get unsecured loans. All these challenges have a significant impact on their growth prospects. Therefore, the Kenya Small Business Development Centers Program is helping mitigate the challenges through four intervention areas facilitating access to finance, markets, business advisory support, and policy support.

The unique aspect of the Kenya SBDC is that it will offer services to MSMEs at no cost. Interestingly, all the MSMEs will get one-on-one customized long-term assistance from the advisors. Also, the Kenya SBDC professionals will localize the services according to the economic and social needs. Ultimately, this establishes new businesses, creates jobs, and increases sales and access to capital.

To ensure inclusion, the Program will ensure that at least 40% of women, youth, and PWDs are involved and actively participate in the Program activities. “When we include the participation of women, youth, and PWDs in businesses, it brings innovation and creativity in business development, ideas, and products,” noted the Kenya SBDC Program Gender Advisor, Lucy Maingi.

The newly hired staff will continue to leverage strategic partnerships in the counties and have a mutual promise of working together to improve the MSMEs in the counties. Consequently, this will inform areas of collaboration, especially in the Counties’ Annual Development Plans (ADPs) in the respective counties. For instance, the team will leverage partnerships with the Department of Trade, Kenya National Chamber of Commerce, Department of Gender, Youth, Sports, Tourism, Cooperatives, and Public Service Commission, to mention a few. Ultimately, through collaboration with different stakeholders, the staff will be able to identify the needs of the MSMEs in the implementing counties and how to intervene better. When MSMEs grow, the counties will increase their tax base through the owned-source revenue.

By the end of the four-day induction training, the newly recruited staff were confident enough to start the operations in the counties and ensure that all the targeted MSMEs in the respective counties achieved a high economic impact and eventually increased their productivity and profitability.

Article by Jane Mumo, Communications Officer, Kenya SBDC

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