Shot in the arm for youth in business as new App unveiled : The Standard

An App aimed at promoting 30,000 micro-businesses owned by young people has been launched. The App, dubbed, ‘My300’, leverages on technology to create micro-businesses that have the potential of up to Sh300,000 turnover per month. The innovation is a partnership between the Standard Group and the Agriculture Infrastructure (AGIN). Speaking during the signing of the partnership yesterday, Standard Group Chief Executive Officer Orlando Lyomu said the platform seeks to empower youth across Africa but we will start with Kenya.  “Today marks a very important step as a media house since we launched our Farm Kenya Initiative in September 2018. We were very clear about the role we wanted to play and it is exciting that that journey has culminated into this historic agreement we are signing today,” said Mr Lyomu.

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He said the App -- which seeks to connect producers to consumers -- will remove middlemen, who make farmers and consumers lose value, from the chain. Food production “We want to use our media platforms’ assets to have an impact in agribusiness. Today we are focusing on the Kenyan youth because agriculture in Kenya is associated with the ageing population, leaving a lot of land idle that is now being converted into real estate yet our population is growing fast, thus presenting a threat to food production,” Lyomu said. He said the partnership will contribute to the economic sustainability and food production as it engages the youth in meaningful agribusiness and enables them to eke out a living. Farmers who want to use the My300 platform, which is downloadable from Google’s Playstore on Android phones, are charged between Sh100 to Sh300 monthly based on the number of customers one has, AGIN CEO Felix Musau said. “Our target first is the urban youth. We have started with Nairobi and hope to expand to other towns and later rural youth. “The target is at least 30,000 microbusiness to aggregate and use their social capital by monetising their relationships to get sustainable revenue,” said Musau. The App targets young people involved in agribusiness, mostly dealing in fruits and vegetables. Other cottage industries like honey will be incorporated soon.

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Standard GroupAgricultureAppBusiness