Start Of Another Era.

I get to share about a program I absolutely enjoyed working on, influencing the social enterprise landscape in Kenya, by supporting some incredible innovations and businesses that are improving socioeconomic conditions for a multitude of people who’d be otherwise impoverished. Supported by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Nairobi, Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund , was a 4 year program valued at ￡5M. Honorary mention to Enock Wangila and Mercy Corps who set the precedent for the incredible success that this program has had and my colleagues and the team from Sinapis who have been as passionate about socioeconomic development especially in marginalized communities and groups in Kenya. Charles Warria , Fiona Waithira , Ronald Osumba , Sylvie Bracquiné (Somerville) , Shem Juma , Mark Carey , Michael Kamande , Santos Okottah, Christine Mboya , Antony Mukiri , Violet Omulo Bobby Kimani (he/him) and the program managers Rasmos Ndubi , Mercy Nganga Oduor and Eunice Ogolo .?

I got to see Jehiel Oliver , Folu Okunade and the team improve the acreage under tillage and helping Kenya get onto the path towards food security with Hello Tractor 's Uber-for-tractors and PAYG tractor ownership platform.

I have borne witness to how James Ambani and his team are transforming life around the small village of Loropio, in Turkana County, one of Kenya’s frontier counties where Value Villages is producing fish fillets and using by-product waste to produce animal feeds for local poultry farmers and exotic fish leather for export markets in Europe. I was honored to get dressed by James for the partner's reception.

I’m reminded of that time TakaTaka Solutions were part of keeping us safe?by disposing toxic waste at the peak of the COVID -19 pandemic. Daniel Paffenholz , Jennifer Wang and Norah Gakii Nyagah , you and your team were real life heroes. And these guys are great for the planet too because they create pellets from non-biodegradable waste. Speaking of which, courtesy of how Peter N. Kironji , Esther Kamau and the team at Twiva are revolutionizing the social commerce sector; taking advantage of the grown screen time, social media consumption and arguably, only made possible by the incredible work by some of the partners led by Ben Roberts who support innovation by connecting us all; Africa’s cloud being Liquid Intelligent Technologies ; I get to use one of the best body butters from Emma of Busu Naturals. Sabrina D. and William McCarren and the team at ZUMI supported my thrifting goals by connecting apparel wholesalers and retailers, most of whom were women, in a transparent, affordable marketplace with the technology, logistics and financial services tools to scale. That meant my plug could get her bale in time and I won’t have to resort to ‘sisi ndio tuko’ and barely feel great while at it.?

It is at FarmWorks Agriculture where I had a literal farm to fork experience that had me develop a deeper appreciation for the sweetness of sweet corn.

As a small holder telephone farmer with my half acre in the country, I can rest easy that I will not only get value but also Peter Muthee Mwangi, Yi Li, Vanessa Sims and the team are creating these beautiful community of practice clusters of out growers who have the potential to feed Africa. Yvonne Otieno of Miyonga Fresh Greens Ltd ensures effective reduction of post harvest losses for mango farmers in Machakos, a small town an hour away from Nairobi known for its rich and juicy produce and Taveta; and has these delicious dried fruit snacks that have become an everyday essential. She follows closely on the heels of Frank Omondi and David Ogiga who pioneered a blockchain tool for macadamia out grower management that has since expanded to other value chains with their team at Grow Fairly Limited. Their mission is to create value with social and climate justice by shifting the focus to being creating value rather than extract it in the value chains that they serve. Them and Miyonga have implemented traceability across their products and the guilt of snacking is lessened by the beautiful stories as you trace through its journey down to the farmer. I guess they cracked that nut and the lives of over 30,000 people in the communities in Kilifi, Kirinyaga and Meru counties, to name but a few, are better for it.?

Emmastella Gakuo and Percy Lemtukei responded to a problem in their community in West Pokot and that resulted in Savanna Circuit , an IT and engineering firm that produce mobile solar powered cooling solutions for the dairy value chain. They effectively manage issues to do with quality control, product traceability, mismanagement of dairy cooperatives and spillage and spoilage of milk which has an adverse impact on the profits that small holder dairy farmers make.

Tommaso Iser Menini ventured to northern Kenya; to Isiolo and Samburu; to work with the pastoralist women in the gum and resins value chains. Their line of of spa and beauty products, Essenza, is now disrupting the local and European hospitality markets at the African Agency for Arid Resources Limited

I fondly remember some of the first games I ever played on the PC whenever my dad would let me use his home office. I enjoyed rat poker the most but the adrenaline rush from Pac-Man was enough to skimp on a few hours of reading time weekly. Over two decades later, Vassiliki Daskalakis and JOHN NJERU are leading their teams in training AI models for even more immersive gaming experiences. They are not afraid to move teketeke and kuvumilia adversity so that every time every time wanatunza the communities within which they are based so that consistently, the team at Africa AI keeps delivering mali safi and keep being wale wasee to their partners; some of whom include Tesla and Boeing . Their trainees work on futuristic AI models in community owned labs in slums in Nairobi and Kiambu counties where the rates of impoverishment break the scales. They provide an alternative platform. Joseph Oliech and Bonnie Mbithi will be the first ones to hound me for hogging my gadgets. I collect gadgets, the older, the more intriguing. This however is a direct contradiction to what they do with their team at WEEE Centre . They are building awareness of e-waste and knowledge on safe disposal by refurbishing, reusing components and recycling e-waste. With the earth choking on e-waste at 347MT and growing at 2MT annually, it becomes imperative then to adopt a lifestyle where as a people we have a recycle culture.

Sheena Patel is determined to end my double shot of espresso days with her decadent set of premium quality specialty teas and infusions blended with organic ingredients called Stir Me Tea.

The product is managed by the team at Brand Discovery and they aim to not only create a globally recognized brand and put Kenyan tea back on the map for premium quality and they directly influence the lives of over 3000 farmers, and growing, in Central Kenya and the Rift Valley. Sheena’s background in design is reflected in each product and she continues to push the needle with her culinary experiences at Desi Galli in Parklands and at her newly opened space at KenAfric Industries, Babadogo.?

Meanwhile Eric Kouskalis and Fiorenzo Conte have a goal of having?moko-fied over 1,000,000 households across three countries by 2025. They are disrupting the affordable furniture market segment while shifting the conversation to local manufacturing and how an we can effectively empower GIG workers and the larger informal sector base with a 4X higher than industry average growth in income for the workers they employ at MoKo Home + Living . Tatu Gatere and Daniel Midega are in tow with an even more daunting task empowering women in construction at Buildher . They seek to create a better workforce by focusing on up skilling female artisans to the levels required by the local construction industry, and to secure a two-to-five-fold increase in income. Make sure to pass by their shop for some incredible products. Bet Amb. Jane Marriott CMG OBE has her warrior stance on to defend the incredible work that they are doing pushing for an equitable and just future within the construction space more so for the female workforce. She got outfitted with some of the trays from the shop in Babadogo.

Akinyi W. Ooko-Ombaka and her team at the then Lynk gets to continue with their revolutionary work at Eden Life Inc and resolve the hustle that it takes to get a trustworthy, vetted and skilled fundi to fix up all the issues in our homes and offices, all on an app.

You have to attend the Somo market at the Alchemist; keep your eyes peeled on their socials for the next one; so that you can just see the impact of investing in community-led initiatives and providing the resources entrepreneurs need to build sustainable enterprises. They pioneered tools such as DigiSomo and DigiKua to support their vision of a world where local entrepreneurs are provided the resources—knowledge, financing and markets—needed to create real change.

Maureen, from Modesh, one of the enterprises they work with secured a facility with 渣打银行 to grow her business. This is part of a larger Ksh. 60M pool to support women entrepreneurs. Amelia Hopkins Phillips , Charles Juma and the team at Somo are now exploring how to continue positively influencing the lives of women entrepreneurs across the Kenyan border in Tanzania. Together with Craig Heintzman of Arifu ; where he is decentralizing access to information by using a chatbot that delivers personalized content to any phone; they worked on some content for their partners.?

Access to financial services for the majority unbanked micro SMEs is still a challenge and Mbakaya Weever , Eric Mworia , Tesh Mbaabu , Roy Njoka and Andrew Bosson have a collective vision to revolutionize retail distribution and drive financial inclusion in Africa using technology. Their tool, rejareja, an all-inclusive B2B commerce & fintech platform empowers informal merchants in Africa to source, order and pay for inventory digitally and conveniently, access financing, collect digital payments and make extra money by reselling digital financial services such as airtime, electricity tokens and bill payments at Marketforce 360. With a presence in 5 African markets in East and West Africa inclusive of Nigeria, which has an addressable market size of over 400M people, they are just nipping at the bud with over 120K merchants on their platform.?

With a cumulative reach of over 150,000 jobs directly from our portfolio Spread across manufacturing, agriculture, digital economy and informal sectors, Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund positively affirms?the need for flexible and catalytic approaches that are suited to testing market-led solutions while also leveraging other enterprise financing options in doing so. Private sector growth has the potential to create jobs, raise incomes, and lift people out of poverty.

I build communities and tell their stories and it has been my absolute pleasure getting to work with our incredible founders, funders, international development partners and innovation ecosystem stakeholders in Kenya to empower young and vulnerable people with opportunities for their socioeconomic wellbeing.