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{
    "id": 373039,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/373039/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 365,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Fund. This is about a third of the qualified contributors in this country. Why is this not a successful scheme? This is because the Authority that is supposed to monitor this Fund is not properly funded. There was an amendment to the Act in 2007 which gave birth to the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA). This institution is supposed to run the Industrial Training Fund. It is supposed to reimburse the employers who have trained their staff and also link the trainees to the employers. NITA has been host to the industrial training attachment portal which is a platform under which all employers who have requirements for trainees put up requests and all the trainees who need attachment also put their requests on this portal. NITA then links up the two. This could be very successful, but the participants are few. It is because it has not been marketed properly and so it is not known to many. I am sure that many Members of Parliament here are not aware of the existence of NITA. This is one area that we need to promote and support. As much as we have many people trained in the hotel industry we also need to have so many people trained in different trades so that by the time we attain the Vision 2030 we shall have enough technical staff to run our industries and factories. Already there are people in the private sector who have started similar schemes. The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) recently started a similar project where they recruit trainees and offer them life skills using different companies. They are offering life skills because many of our youth are not responsible and they have got into drinking alcohol. That is why KEPSA decided to start with giving them life skills so that they can redirect their lives. After the life skills they are offered trade skills. After trade training they are offered attachment. This is because NITA has not been able to do the same. It is faced with a lot of challenges. It is unable to enforce the Act which requires that every employer must contribute Kshs50 for every employee. Many employers have given a false number of their employees so that they reduce the amount of money they are supposed to pay. Others have literally ignored the law and they do not contribute at all. Unfortunately, NITA has not been able to enforce this part of the law because it is not properly funded. In fact, it is operating at one-third of its authorized capacity. I believe that if NITA was adequately funded, it would be in a position to enforce this. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the amount of Kshs50 per employee is too low compared with the amount of money required to offer technical training in Kenya. I know there are hon. Members here who have children in colleges or technical learning institutions. For an institution with 100 employees, the employer will give out Kshs5,000. This amount of money is not enough to offer training for even one member of staff. This money need to be improved. Many companies are not contributing and so we need to enable NITA capture many organizations that have come up. A lot of business in this country is being done by the small and medium enterprises. Many of them cannot be captured by NITA because it does not have capacity. The levy of Kshs50 was imposed by an amendment to the Finance Bill in 2007. This makes it look like a tax on the employer. It becomes difficult to change it under the Industrial Training Act. We need to change this. The levy by NITA should not get force from the Finance Bill."
}