National Young Innovators Entrepreneurship Programme

The goal of this programme is to empower young talented people with the skills required to develop and transform their inventions and innovations into entrepreneurial products and thereafter linked to partners in the industry ecosystem. The programme is based on the STEP (Students Training on Entrepreneurial Program) model which is a research–based and hands–on training program. The STEP model was developed by the Leuphana University of Leunerburg, Germany, in collaboration with Makerere University School of Business in 2006, and has so far adopted in Kenya. It is an initiative that aims at promoting entrepreneurial/business knowledge, attitude and skills to students and academic staff as an effort towards job creation and poverty eradication. The STEP model comprises of a twelve modular training that has a practical component on developing real enterprises.

The modules include: Opportunity identification, development plan, product description, customer analysis, competitor analysis, industry analysis, company description, business strategy, operations plans, finding starting capital, investment plan, starting capital plan, management of cash, financial plan, book keeping, marketing plan, critical risks and risk management and business plan writing. In addition, ICT will be included in the program. In FY2021/22, the Department trained 400 youth under this programme.