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{
    "id": 41827,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/41827/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 207,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "to be implemented over a five-year period. The allocations I have referred to will largely go towards the resettlement of residents who now occupy the 1,200 acres of land targeted to be covered by that project expansion. Current global food shortages present immense opportunities to our agricultural development. For Kenya to be a net global supplier of food, we must start to facilitate growth and expansion of agri-business by providing a sustainable access to a broad range of financial services through value chain approach, in order to facilitate increases in productivity; add value throughout and transform processing, marketing for the consumers. Building on our encouraging experiences in implementing the Kilimo Bora Project, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has extended a generous support of US$10 million as a risk sharing facility to leverage commercial banks to lend approximately Kshs10 billion to rural and agricultural development targeting 700,000 households. This project is also intended to build capacity of rural groups with limited business experience and to facilitate the vulnerable women and youth to acquire financial graduation through skills training and asset creation. Hon. Members, we are expanding this project by establishing a Kshs5 billion Impact Investment Fund under the Kenya Incentive Based Risk Sharing Agricultural Lending Programme (KIRSAL) to be implemented over a four-year period, in order to leverage Kshs50 billion lending to the agricultural sector and rural development targeting another 1.5 million small holder farmers and 10,000 agri-businesses throughout the country. To this end, we have allocated Kshs1 billion as an initial Government contribution to this Fund. The implementation of this programme will empower and position the private sector players in the agricultural sector to deliver pro-poor economic growth, reduce poverty, expand employment opportunities especially for our youth and diversify our export. One of the greatest assets that our country has been blessed with is the vibrancy of our youth. According to the 2009 Population Census, the youth constitute a significant majority in our country. As such, the youth must be viewed as key stakeholders in the economy of this country and, indeed, the stewards of 2030. The youth of Kenya are highly talented, energetic and have shown great enthusiasm in entrepreneurship. Indeed, our youth have pioneered interventions in the ICT Sector, especially in the mobile technology and have given our country international recognition. We must, therefore, take measures to tap this pool of resources to push our economy up the technology value chain. For this reason, the Government will continue to scale up youth empowerment programmes in order to ensure that our young people can look forward to a decent employment. Towards this end, we have scaled up the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project (KYEP) by Kshs210 million to go towards labour intensive works and social services, bringing the total expanded figure to Kshs1.8 billion in the upcoming financial year. This will reduce the vulnerability of unemployed youth through the expansion and enhancement of the Kazi kwa Vijana initiative."
}