The Government has launched a free digital skills training programme for young entrepreneurs, women and people with disabilities to give them the skills they need to access government procurement and to grow their businesses.
The initiative (being rolled out via the State Department for MSMEs Development) is designed to tackle the various problems which have so far prevented so many small businesses from being able to take part in public procurement at all. These include lack of awareness, complicated application processes, inadequate business formalisation and difficulty in accessing finance.
The programme is expected to reach over 600,000 young entrepreneurs in the initial phase with a total eventual reach of some 820,000 beneficiaries, according to the Government.
It will also cater to the entrepreneur who has previously applied for a government empowerment programme and been turned down, giving them a further opportunity to develop their business skills and gain an understanding of how to go about participating in government tenders.
At the launch, government officials stated that the training is part of the wider National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) programme. The aim of NYOTA is to provide young people with the skills, knowledge and business linkages they need in order to improve their economic prospects.
The initiative also aims to increase participation in the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) programme which sets aside at least 30% of public procurement opportunities for youth owned enterprises, women owned enterprises and enterprises owned by persons with disabilities.
The national budget is at KSh4.8 trillion and the government points to public procurement as a major area of opportunity for businesses with the 30% allocation potentially representing at least KSh300 billion of procurement activity per annum.
However a large number of eligible businesses have been unable to take advantage of the allocation as they simply don’t have the technical know how to spot the tenders, put in competitive bids and work through the government procurement process.
The new digital training programme is designed to address these gaps by providing practical guidance through the whole government tendering process.
The free course will be 10 weeks long and will comprise 5 self-paced modules (2 weeks each). Week 1 will be all coursework and Week 2 will be all practical sessions.
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Participants will be given the opportunity to learn about business formalisation, the requirements of public procurement, how to identify tender opportunities, how to put a bid together and how to use the e-procurement system.
The training will also cover financial management, pricing, business competitiveness and how to go about securing finance to enable the delivery of government contracts.
Industry experts and subject matter specialists will be involved in the practical sessions and live interactive sessions to help the learners understand the requirements of government procurement.
The course will be delivered in English and will have assessments at the end of each learning module. On completion of the course, participants will be awarded a certificate.
The government said the training would also be of benefit to the entrepreneur who had not yet formalised their business by enabling them to access the relevant business registration services.
Officials point out that simply registering a business doesn’t get you onto the tender list. You’ve got to understand the procurement rules, you’ve got to be in compliance and you’ve got to be able to put in a proper competitive bid.
The programme is also expected to feed into the Government’s wider efforts to deal with the problem of delayed payments to suppliers, which has had a direct impact on the ability of small businesses to carry on trading and to deliver on their contracts.
The Govt is putting in place a framework to deal with the backlog of invoices over the 60 day period, in line with the recent Cabinet direction to get the outstanding payments dealt with.
By combining digital training, access to finance, business registration support and improved payment processes the initiative is designed to create a much more accessible procurement environment for SMES.
Eligible entrepreneurs will be able to enrol via a zero rated USSD service which will allow them to register without any additional data or access charges.
Once you’ve completed the registration process you’ll get a link via SMS to the digital learning platform.
Those who have already applied for the scheme will go through a shorter registration process, whilst first time applicants will be asked to provide further demographic and business information.
The government’s hope is that the scheme will lead to an increase in the number of SMES taking part in public procurement, foster entrepreneurship and generate employment by giving more businesses the opportunity to win and deliver on government contracts.
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