By James Wakahiu
The Mpesa Foundation Academy has launched a year-long entrepreneurship and leadership programme for its Form Four leavers.
The academy, an initiative of the country’s leading mobile service provider Safaricom, opened the doors of Uongozi Center to its first batch of 96 scholars who concluded their secondary school education last year.
Mpesa Foundation Academy CEO Les Baillie said that they will spend Sh 100 million for the programme to nurture student’s talents and business acumen in ICT, business development, science, artistry and life skills.
The center will incubate students’ business ideas, introduce them in the work world, broaden their minds and prepare them to be the leaders of tomorrow.
“We will be having corporate entities like banks send their officials here to train the students on matters financial management and economics for a week or two. We are creating an environment for our students to learn from already and well-established entrepreneurs,” he said.
He said that an Investment committee is set to evaluate and scrutinize business ideas that will be presented by the students and once proven to be viable and sustainable they will receive seed capital to improve their ventures.
“Once the business ideas are approved, the student behind it will receive a loan amounting to Sh 20,000 which they will repay once the business improves,” he said.
Bezzy Makena, who specializes in artifacts, said she is determined to study further so as to improve her art work. She said that during her school life at the Academy she has already made a profit of Sh 200,000 from sale of her beadwork.
Breda Mwelu, 17-year-old a tech guru, who has been training on robotics at the academy, noted that she will venture into solving some of the problems facing the society in health, security and education areas.
