CFK Africa, an international nonprofit has launched a microgrant pilot program in Kibera, the country’s largest informal settlement, to support entrepreneurs in building community economic resilience.
“We have a longstanding saying that talent is universal, but opportunity is not,” said Jeffrey Okoro, CFK Africa’s education and livelihoods program coordinator.
“This new initiative will help entrepreneurs who just need a small boost to get their businesses off the ground, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and with high inflation in Kenya.”
Due to the highly competitive nature of Kenya’s formal job market, most residents in the communities where CFK Africa works are employed in the informal sector and often have unstable incomes.
The new program aims to improve the quality and ease of doing business in informal settlements and create more income-generating opportunities, leading to greater economic stability for aspiring entrepreneurs and their families.
In line with the organization’s model of participatory development, the initiative was developed in response to a community-identified need. Residents in informal settlements where CFK Africa works have long expressed interest in a program like this to build economic resilience.
The initiative is even more relevant as small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs struggle as high inflation in Kenya has increased the cost of living.
The new microgrant initiative is also inspired by CFK Africa’s co-founder Tabitha Festo, an unemployed nurse and widowed mother in Kibera who established its first medical clinic out of her 10-foot-by-10-foot home with a grant of just $26.
Festo’s dedication to community service laid the foundation for CFK Africa’s primary healthcare work, which now serves more than 50,000 patients every year.
