MBELENABIZ BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION
The MbeleNaBiz Business Plan Competition (“MbeleNaBiz”) is an initiative of the Government of Kenya, under the Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP). MbeleNaBiz is implemented by the Micro and Small Enterprises Authority (MSEA) and the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs (MIIYA), with support from the World Bank.
‘MbeleNaBiz’ aims to create new and expand existing youth-led enterprises by providing them with grant financing and/or business training. It also seeks to create jobs and increase income for young men and women. By investing in young entrepreneurs whose ventures will generate employment opportunities and earnings for their fellow unemployed youth, the competition will contribute to the development of an inclusive economy that provides opportunities for as many young Kenyans as possible.
The Government of Kenya recognizes the need for job creation to address the challenge of youth unemployment in Kenya and the ‘MbeleNaBiz’ initiative will contribute toward alleviating this challenge.
Status update on the Business Plan Competition
After a successful National Launch event was held on 10th July, 2019, the Business Plan Competition made a ‘call for applications’ from the date of the launch for a period of ten weeks that ended on 2nd September, 2019.
A National Outreach Campaign was held across the 47 Counties serving the dual purpose of recruiting for the BPC while building a broader culture of entrepreneurship in Kenya, particularly in areas outside of Nairobi and other major urban areas thereby ensuring access and inclusion throughout all dimensions of the BPC in order to reflect Kenya’s diverse population and identify the highest-potential business ideas across sectors, industries, and communities.
KPMG Advisory Services Ltd, which was managing the Competition on behalf of the Micro and Small Enterprises Authority (MSEA), received more than 12,000 applications exceeding the target of 10,000.
After eligibility screening, 11,466 applications were found eligible to be scored/marked. After scoring, the top 4,951 were selected and invited to participate on an online business plan training before submission of the detailed business plans.
A total of 3,804 out of the 4,951 submitted their Business Plans that were subjected to three reviews by an Independent Judging Panel. The third and final review was carried out on 4th December, 2020. This paved way for the pitching of their individual plans, leading to the final stages of short-listing the 750 winners who received business grants of either Ksh 900,000 {500 applicants} or Ksh 3,600,000 {250 applicants}.
On 24th February 2021, H.E former President Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled the winners of the completion, he congratulated the awardees on their achievement and added that through them and because of their hard work, KYEOP will inject a total of Ksh.1.5 B into the youth economy of the country.
Disbursement of the grants to the selected youth businesses was done three tranches after verification of required documents. A total of 741 beneficiaries have received tranche one, 720 beneficiaries have received tranche two, and 662 awardees have received their tranche three funds after being successfully evaluated. The innovations by these youth and employment created can be replicated in future interventions.
To learn more about the competition go to https://mbelenabiz.go.ke/
