Strathmore University Business School Kenya has held a Media roundtable meeting ahead of the 12th Annual Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Conference Expo and the official launch of the (WEIP).

Some of the key aspects that the University focuses on are the entrepreneurship ecosystem which has the enterprise and the things focused on is policy, culture, support center, finance, markets, networking, technology, and human capital.

Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Strathmore University Ruth Kiraka highlighted several programs at the University are there to develop the people running these enterprises such as the honor manager program, enterprise development program, and creative enterprise program.

Kiraka stressed that the WEIP sisters create a value program that focuses on sisters and helps them develop their social enterprises such as friendship management, fleet management, and family business.

‘So when you think about the ecosystem within the university, everything we are doing for SMEs is so
mething that is contributing to the broader enterprise development,’ she observed.

The Professor announced that the Women Entrepreneurship Incubator Programme launched at the SME Conference received funding from USAID for about 1.6 million Dollars and the focus will be on women on small and growing businesses.

Speaking at the event on Tuesday, Kiraka emphasized that they will ensure at least 30-40 percent of those enterprises will be owned by youths.

‘The program will be carried out in counties such as Kiambu, Nakuru, and Nairobi. The sectors of focus are textile and apparel, agribusiness /agro-processing, health, water, and sanitation and the program will run from August 2024 to June 2026,’ she highlighted.

Kiraka presented the objectives addressed by the projects including increased trade and investments within Africa, improving or enabling the business environment in Africa, and cross-cutting objectives.

She cited the challenges that the program seeks to address including limited access to finance, li
mited market opportunities, limited access to business development services, weak ecosystem for support and lack of self-efficacy.

Source: Kenya News Agency