Cabinet Secretary Unveils Women and Youth Empowerment Projects

Cabinet Secretary, Prof. Margaret Kobia on Friday 22nd, January 2021 inaugurated several key government projects on Women and Youth empowerment in the county of Meru.

The Cabinet Secretary launched the upgrade of the link road leading to Mariene campus, a constituent campus of the University of Meru, currently under construction. During her inspection tour of the on-going works being carried out by the National Youth Service, the Cabinet Secretary thanked President Uhuru Kenyatta for facilitating the establishment of the new campus, noting that the President had facilitated the allocation of the land on which the campus is being established and that the title for the land had already been issued. She also acknowledged the Ministry of Education for prioritizing funding for the construction of the campus to begin. At the request of the area Member of Parliament Mr. Moses Kirima who accompanied her, the Cabinet Secretary agreed to request the President to honour the community by laying the foundation stone of the campus in the coming days.

At a later function the Cabinet Secretary officially launched the newly refurbished and fully equipped Meru Central Constituency Youth Empowerment Center. Accompanied by the Secretary for youth from the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs Mr. Raymond Ochieng, Prof Kobia unveiled the new center which will provide the youth from the area with reliable internet access. It will also serve as a counseling and guidance center. The Cabinet Secretary challenged the youth from the constituency to take advantage of the services that the government has laid at their disposal to empower themselves.

Earlier in the day, Prof. Kobia unveiled two new products that have been introduced to enhance women empowerment through the Women Enterprise Fund (WEF). A new lending model that is more flexible and gives more autonomy to individual women entrepreneurs was launched, where women can borrow money for individual projects under the umbrella of their groups. She also introduced enhanced financing to women groups of up to Kshs one million, up from a previous ceiling of Kshs 750,000. “No woman belonging to a group should lack funds to start or run a business in this country” the cabinet Secretary averred.

At the same time the Cabinet secretary disbursed KES. 39 Million to women groups in Meru County. She encouraged women from across the country to take advantage of the affordable soft loans made available through Women Enterprise Fund (WEF).

In her extensive tour of the day, Prof. Kobia was accompanied by Central Imenti MP, Hon. Moses Kirima, North Imenti MP, Hon. Dawood Rahim, Meru Deputy County Commissioner, Titus Kilonzi, CEO Women Enterprise Fund, Eng. Charles Mwirigi among other government officials.

By Jacqueline Kirimi