The youthful refugee population will soon be able to proactively participate in income generating activities through online platform aimed at delivering business solutions to the country’s private sector.
The initiative being rolled out jointly by the Ajira Digital Program in partnership and the Amahoro Coalition will be implemented in Kakuma and Daadab refugee camps located in Turkana and Garissa respectively.
During a business executive round table event held at a city hotel, the private sector players among other actors discussed opportunities and the benefits of business process digitisation and the outsourcing of talents and services online from marginalised youth in the refugee camps.
“We have a lot of talent waiting to be tapped among the refugee population in Kenya. We have seen many examples of bright but marginalized young people delivering quality work to global clients through online platforms. Our aim is, therefore, to help grow and harness this talent to also deliver work for our local businesses, thus creating even more opportunities for refugees to add value not only in their local communities but also nationally.” Dr. Ehud Gachugu, Project Director, Ajira Digital Program and Youth Employment at KEPSA noted.
They observed that the private sector can do more than just offering of humanitarian aid to the estimated 500,000 refugee population in the country by advancing their inclusion in the digital workspace; ultimately contributing to youth employment and economic growth.
The initiative now offers hope to young people to explore opportunities beyond the camps.
Ajira Digital Program is a government of Kenya programme domiciled within the Ministry of ICT and it is being implemented by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) and with funding from Mastercard Foundation.
Speaking during the event, Valerie Karuwa, the Private Sector Partnerships Lead at Amahoro Coalition urged private sector leaders, in the spirit of inclusion, to explore the vast talent pool and digital skills available within the refugee communities, also a potential captive market for inclusive business opportunities.
“Refugee inclusion brings countless benefits including dynamism in entrepreneurship, customer loyalty, and reliability as borrowers, thus providing both a source and consumer market for businesses and states that include them. The private sector through innovative business models can champion more sustainable and dignified ways for refugees to access economic opportunities while creating value for their own companies, thus contributing to economic empowerment not only for refugees but also for the local host communities”, Ms. Karuwa added.
The Ajira Digital Program, mandated with making the country a digital freelancing hub by engaging the private sector and public sectors to support digitally skilled youth to access quality jobs.
So far, the programme has ecorded over 1.9 million Kenyans working online up from about 600,000 in 2020.
The 2022 Ajira Digital National Survey also indicates that close to 9 million Kenyans are aware of online and digital work opportunities.
Mohamed Omar, Chief Executive Officer of the Dadaab Collective, a digital work agency located in the Daadab refugee camp urged the business community to believe in the potential of young people in the refugee camps to create economic and job opportunities for themselves through online and digital work.
“The Daadab Collective has over 200,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers with many of them earning their income from incentive work for international and local organizations, petty trade, and small-scale business enterprises. We know that many of these refugees have the technical capacity and experience in digital and digitally-enabled work and we urge the Kenyan private sector to strongly consider extending these work opportunities to realize the shared value and which will make a big difference in the quality of life of these marginalized communities”, he said.