In my professional work and extended responsibilities, I have come across very similar cases of trauma suffered by youth due to long periods of unemployment.
Yet their backgrounds could not have been more different.
The financial stress, survival anxiety, stigma, isolationism, and loss of self-worth and esteem were all felt by the youth I observed in varying degrees.
I was particularly distressed by this as they are my generation, invoking my keen interest to interrogate what sustainable investment opportunities were possible on a grant or loan of Sh100,000.
Whereas the much-lamented hindrance to youth empowerment is said to be a lack of access to finance, the bigger problem I found is a good investment idea.
This would be an idea with an existing or potential market, evidence of financial discipline and scalability for medium- or long-term growth.
I witnessed these factors in all the cases I observed.
The first case involved a youth from a modest background living with his parents in three rooms of a ten-roomed courtyard dwelling with communal ablution facilities in Kisauni, Mombasa.
With a secondary school-level education but no permanent employment for six years or any formal technical education, his first priority was to invest in a motorcycle passenger service or boda boda business.
He did not consider personal development by further education as a suitable option. His investment of choice attracts an establishment cost of Sh180,000 without asset financing.
With about 2,000 riders in Kisauni, he would still make a profit from the location’s catchment population of approximately 300,000 people.
Whereas the business has an estimated return after running costs of about Sh700 daily, the youth did not seem to have the prerequisite financial discipline required to grow the business, especially due to pressure to contribute to family household earnings.
To try and manage foreseeable pitfalls, a collective of peer boda boda operators was proposed to enhance group online financial management, branding and increased capacity to give contract passenger and goods services within their locality.
The second youth was a young woman from a privileged middle class family also living with her parents in a four-bedroom apartment in upmarket Nyali.
The lady, having been unemployed for three years after attaining a university degree in commerce, had now found her life less comfortable than when in college where she was not expected to earn and finance her lifestyle.
Her focus was investment in personal development by enrolling in an online course from a world-renowned prestigious university in artificial intelligence, machine learning operations and remote work development.
The accumulative 12-month long courses, which cost about Sh210,000, had the potential of opening access to work attracting international scales of earnings potentially estimated at Sh260,000 per month.
The choice made by this youth, which would inevitably require a top up to the initial grant of Sh100,000 to be affordable, was faced with the very real twin hurdles of sustaining motivation and discipline required in time management for the full duration of the course.
To manage this concern it was proposed that only the online courses to register ought to be both synchronous and scheduled, thus dictating the specific time one must engage and allowing progression only on completion of set tasks within a time slot.
After completion of the course, lay three further challenges.
Online communication and collaboration is often not seamless, as differing time zones, unclear instructions and delayed responses cause inefficiencies.
Another problem is susceptibility to distractions and potential lack of work-life balance, resulting in more inefficiency.
Lastly the infrastructure required to maintain productivity may be lacking, be it internet stability, work equipment inadequacies or uninterrupted electricity supply.
An observation I made that seems universal though not amplified enough is the youth’s lack of patience, their relentless pursuit of quick gratification, absence of financial discipline, the attraction to celebrity culture and the crippling terror of failure.
With an estimated additional one million youth annually seeking earning opportunities among the existing 3.5 million unemployed youth, it may perhaps be time for the youth of who I am one to also look at their behavioural shortcomings.
