Nairobi — The government targets supporting 2 million youth through various components of the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) programme, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has revealed.

Speaking at his official residents at Karen after meeting the relevant Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and agency heads said the first phase of the NYOTA Programme has been successfully implemented with 1 Million beneficiaries set to be supported through the project's multiple components

"The way NYOTA was crafted at the beginning, it would have reached 820,000 young people, but from what has gone around this table on 3rd of February and today, we are likely to hit a million direct beneficiaries from this NYOTA," the DP said.

Kindiki reiterated that the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) hold the key to accelerate Bottom-Up Economic Transformation of Kenya saying that the administration is exploring other ways of reaching out to millions of unemployed youths.

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"I am pleased to announce that even after the expiry of the current NYOTA project, we are going to put in Government of Kenya resources to target more young people into the future beyond the current project where we are partnering with the World Bank. And therefore, we are going to have more beneficiaries."

He added; "If we bring in Phase 2 of NYOTA, where we are going to put in Government of Kenya resources, we are going to target perhaps a similar number into the future. So this is a very serious intervention."

DP Kindiki said that the ongoing 29 billion shillings NYOTA and the soon to be implemented 20 billion shillings Kenya Jobs and Economic Transformation (KJET) are crucial interventions aimed at creating jobs and income opportunities for nearly two million young people with potential for greater reach.