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The government has launched the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) program to support young entrepreneurs across the country.
NYOTA, a youth-focused grant and training program, aims at reducing youth unemployment by offering grants, skills training, and business support to select young entrepreneurs.
The five-year flagship project, which targets 820,000 youths, is jointly funded by the Kenyan government and the World Bank.
The government says it is designed to support 100,000 youth across the country, with up to 70 beneficiaries from each of the 1,450 wards countrywide set to receive Sh50,000 grants.
The Sh50,000 grants will be disbursed in two tranches of Sh25,000 each, subject to meeting training and mentorship requirements.
Eligibility Criteria: Who Qualifies?
NYOTA is open to Kenyan youth in all 47 counties aged 18 to 29 years and persons with disabilities up to 35 years of age.
The government says it also targets to reach 50% of Kenya’s women population and youth in refugee camps in Garissa and Turkana.
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To be considered for NYOTA and its grant component, applicants must satisfy several conditions:
- Age: 18–29 years (up to 35 for Persons with Disabilities).
- Education: Form 4 level of education or below.
- Employment status: Unemployed, underemployed, or working in low-income jobs.
How will the program work?
The program involves 90,000 youth who will be trained to gain job experience, including business training, mentorship, start-up capital, and financial linkages. Qualified youth will get Sh50,000 each to start businesses.
Additionally, the program will offer basic financial literacy training to qualified youth and enroll 190,000 beneficiaries from the first and second interventions in NSSF’s ‘Haba Haba’ Savings Scheme.
Over 600,000 youth will be trained on Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) that facilitate the enterprises owned by women, youth and persons with disabilities to bid for government tenders.
How to apply
- Interested applicants are urged to dial the USSD code *254#, which is free to use on both feature phones and smartphones
- Select the NYOTA option
- Fill in their personal and educational details
- Choose a preferred option: training, entrepreneurship or skill recognition, and await confirmation for further processing.
Participation in the NYOTA project is FREE, meaning applicants are not required to pay any fee or service charge to be enrolled in the project. This year’s applications are currently open until 12th October 2025 at 12 noon.
