Ajira Digital Program, an initiative of the Government of Kenya under the Ministry of ICT, Innovations, and Youth Affairs which is being funded by Mastercard Foundation and implemented by different partners including Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) hosted a discussion forum with Business Executives from Homabay and Kisumu Counties to assess and explore the synergies and potential collaboration opportunities within the digital market and economy. These forums that were held over two days are part of the series of business engagement forums that Ajira is holding across different counties.
Recently, a national study on the digital economy indicated that more than 1.2 million young people are earning their livelihood through digital and digitally-enabled jobs. This scale has been reached as a result of the growing importance of Kenya’s digital ecosystem and the role of the private sector in spurring innovations, jobs, and enterprises for youth. Businesses that are embracing digitization as a core strategy for enhancing operations have further encouraged this trend while at the same time facilitating the creation of jobs for youth. This is the central focus of the Ajira Digital Program.
Speaking at the forums, KEPSA’s Deputy CEO-Projects and Foundation, Eng. Martha Cheruto, highlighted KEPSA’s commitment to supporting the government to ensure social-economic transformation of the country and more so towards achieving a high-quality life for Kenyans by 2030. Martha noted that the youthful population accounting for 75 per cent of the total population forms a great resource for businesses to tap into and accelerate the transformation. Representing over 1,000,000 businesses from all sectors of the economy, KEPSA has been playing a key role in engaging the private sector to support the implementation of the Ajira Digital Program through digitization of the business processes and the creation of digital jobs for the youth. Martha recounted how some businesses have been actively involved in youth employment programs before such as Safaricom’s Blaze, ABSA Bank Kenya’s Ready-To-Work, KCB’s2Jiajiri, Equity Bank’s Wings to Fly, Mabati Rolling Mills’ Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative, and TVET programs among other programs. Hence, she urged the Homa Bay and Kisumu business communities to explore potential solutions and prospects for collaboration in the digital space as they ensured the creation of value for businesses and job opportunities for Kenyan youth.
Speaking at the events was Yakazi Upskilling Program (YUP) Business Development Lead, Marilyn Seleyan, who reflected how their partnership with Ajira through KEPSA has helped the platform in getting the right skills and connected them to trainings, events, digital content, trainers, skilling resources, work tools, and growth opportunities. She added that online jobs are not limited to youth only in Nairobi but across the counties. Also, several of the Program’s beneficiaries shared the significant impact Ajira has had in their lives by offering them decent source of livelihood.
Ministry of ICT Regional Coordinator – Ajira, Fredrick Odossy, was happy to note that in Homa Bay the government in partnership with area MPs and NG-CDF Office has invested in several Ajira Youth Empowerment Centres (AYECs) at Ndhiwa CDF Office, Ratanga CDF Office Ndhiwa, East Kamagak Chief’s Office, Kodera South, Kasipul NG-CDF Office – Oyugis, Kasewe Chief’s Office and Omiro CDF Office. The Ndhiwa AYEC especially had made tremendous strides by offering digital skills training as well as providing transcription services as job opportunities through a partnership with the Judiciary. The satellite centre which has 20 transcribers has transcribed over 2,047 audio hours demonstrating that digital jobs can be executed anywhere in this country.
Nicholas Migot, Director ICT County Government of Kisumu applauded the Ajira Digital Program for providing a clear roadmap to youth empowerment by introducing the vast online opportunities that the digital ecosystem presents. Mr Nicholas extolled Kisumu for being a county embracing digital transformation adding that they are on course to create digital centres to complement the effort by Ajira Digital Program and its partners.
Ken Mwenda, eMobilis Co-Founder and MD explained how the Ajira Program brings value to one’s business. He explained that the Ajira Program looks both at the supply and demand side. The Youth are trained with the end goal of making an impact on the businesses through digital jobs. Over 59,000 youth have been trained and then there are mentors in place. Mr. Mwenda urged business people to embrace digital transformation pointing services that can be sourced including but not limited to data entry, transcription services, digital marketing, and virtual assistance. eMobilis he noted has partnered with Amazon where over 97 youth were trained on more of the aforementioned areas and other web services. This is in addition to their engagement with online platforms to offer blue colour jobs with the stand out example being iBuild and Fundis who rebranded the Ajira Youth Empowerment Centres (AYECs).
Showcasing the achievements of the Program thus far the Project Director Ajira Digital, Kenya Private Sector Alliance, Dr. Ehud Gachugu encouraged business leaders that the digital jobs offered businesses solutions such as reducing business costs and solving capacity issues while at the same time focusing on more core functions and increased productivity from their employees. Among the digital work that businesses could source as per Ehud’s list included data entry, content writing, transcription, software development, accounting among others. According to Dr. Ehud, Digital jobs will contribute 1.4 trillion to the GDP by 2024. It is, therefore, paramount that businesses undergo digital transformation and have a digital footprint if they are to compete in the future. “Together, we can catalyse and enable the demand side locally, regionally, and Internationally,” said Ehud.
The digital economy remains a top priority for the Government of Kenya and over the last 15 years, they have been committed to putting in place enabling policies and investments to support these efforts. Government, through the Ministry of ICT, has an objective to have broadband available to all Kenyans within walking distance even in rural areas. To date, over 200 Ajira Youth Empowerment Centres have been rolled out countrywide, over 40 Ajira Digital Clubs established in Universities and TVET institutions, and more than 200,000 youth registered on the Ajira Portal https://ajiradigital.go.ke/
Martha underscored the fact that the apex body of the private sector in Kenya, KEPSA, is particularly aligned to the agenda of the digital economy, job creation and inclusive growth in Kenya. She welcomed the private sector companies to explore opportunities shared in the Forum and to continue supporting this cause of jobs for youth as they jointly move the country forward.
![For years, a Johannesburg school's soccer coach did the entire team's laundry himself. Several evenings a week he and the teachers carried the kit home, washed and dried it, and brought it back so the squad had something clean to train in. Their changing room was a bare space with one toilet, a broken mirror and nowhere to store a thing. There was no shortage of talent or commitment – the surroundings just held it all back. Until very recently, this was the reality at Kensington Secondary School. With the help of LG Electronics South Africa (https://apo-opa.co/4eQr5B2), the achiever who chose to fix it was Williams Okpara, the Nigerian goalkeeper who spent more than a decade guarding Orlando Pirates' posts and still holds the club's appearance record. His episode opens Make Life Good, LG's six-part reality series made in partnership with MultiChoice, a Canal+ company, and hosted by Jessica Nkosi. It has aired on Mzansi Magic every Thursday at 19:00 since 11 June, with repeats on Saturdays at 14:00 and Sundays at 09:30. The premise is rare for reality television. No prizes or eliminations, no scandals or tempers boiling over. Instead, six change-makers – or as they are affectionately known by LG as ‘Achievers’ – each return to a cause they already back, and the build teams get 24 hours to remake a space that shapes the people who use it. What connects them is geography as much as generosity: the Achievers come from across the continent, from South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, yet every organisation they chose sits in a South African community close to their hearts and in need of support. In Lanseria, that community is a safe home and orphanage for babies and young children called LIV Lanseria, backed by Saray Khumalo, the South African mountaineer who became the first Black African woman to summit Everest. Her makeover turned a room with a single two-plate stove into a fully-fledged, working kitchen. A 900 L fridge now holds food for the whole home. A dishwasher returns the hours volunteers used to lose at the sink. A microwave warms a bottle evenly, without the cold spots that catch out a tired caregiver. The appliances follow the problem, which is the guiding principle in bringing together the Achievers, LG and Multichoice to make a difference by using their specialities. The pattern holds at a skills programme for unemployed men, where a small projector gave way to a 100-inch smart display that now runs learning demonstrations and its written theory side by side, as well as an energy-efficient air conditioner that keeps a packed training room usable through the afternoon. In a country that plans its weeks around the unpredictable availability of service delivery, that efficiency is what lets a stretched organisation keep the equipment running once the cameras leave. "Life's Good is our slogan, but this series asks us to prove it where life isn't always easy or fair," says Pennileigh Naidu, Head of Corporate Marketing and PR at LG Electronics South Africa. She frames it as a deliberate move away from product-led marketing. "We didn't want to talk about impact, we wanted to show it. For every organisation, we started with the operational problem they live with daily, then chose the technology that removes it." Her measure of success, she emphasises, is the hours a caregiver gets back and the dignity a working kitchen restores. That is the shift worth a marketer's or a technologist's attention. Corporate social investment has tended to sit off to the side of the business, a cheque written and a photograph taken. Make Life Good folds the impact into the brand and invites the harder question of whether the fridge is still working, and still useful, a year from now. Naidu calls it shared value rather than charity, the point where commercial capability and social relevance stop competing for the same budget. The series reaches viewers in Kenya and Nigeria too, and sits within LG's wider regional storytelling, gathered in its newsroom feature "Beyond the Product". This season, though, the work was South African, room-by-room and need-by-need. The crews have now packed up, and the Achievers have started their work on making changes with more communities. What stays behind in a Lanseria kitchen and a Kensington changing room is quieter and more durable: kit dried overnight, meals prepped faster, an afternoon lesson a full class can finally see. None of it will trend, but all of it will still be working when the next intake of children arrives. Make Life Good – the Achievers and their causes Williams Okpara (Nigeria) – Kensington Secondary School soccer programme, Johannesburg Former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper who holds the club's appearance record and was part of the 1995 CAF Champions League-winning team, and is now Pirates' team manager. Products: 13Kg Front Loader with AI DD™ & Steam+™ in Black Finish (https://apo-opa.co/4wpZzSf); 10kg A+++ Dual Inverter Heat Pump Dryer in Black Finish (https://apo-opa.co/3QEJSrj); LG XBOOM Stage 301 by will.i.am Bluetooth Speaker (http://apo-opa.co/4aG3IsW). Saray Khumalo (South Africa) – LIV Lanseria children's home, Lanseria The first Black African woman to summit Mount Everest and to ski to the South Pole, and founder of the Summits With a Purpose foundation, which raises funds to build libraries in disadvantaged schools. Products: 900L InstaView™ Door-in-Door French Door Fridge with UVnano™ in Black Finish (https://apo-opa.co/3SKr5eF); 42L NeoChef™ Grill Microwave Oven in Stainless Finish (https://apo-opa.co/4f4TweN); 14 Place QuadWash™ Dishwasher with TrueSteam™ in Stainless Finish (https://apo-opa.co/4f4Twvj). Adze Ugah (Nigeria) – Bold Men Skills Program / BBM Foundation Nigerian-born, Johannesburg-based filmmaker, one of the directors of Shaka iLembe, whose feature Sierra's Gold won Best South African Feature Film at the 2024 Durban International Film Festival. Products: 100 inch LG QNED evo AI QNED86 MiniLED 4K 120Hz Smart TV (https://apo-opa.co/4bt52j0); 9.1.5 ch LG Home Cinema Soundbar with Surround Sound and Rear Speakers S95TR (https://apo-opa.co/4wmHX9H); [Wifi] 24k BTU DualCool+ Inverter (https://apo-opa.co/4wt1WDP). Esther Munyi (Kenya) – Botshabelo Babies Home, Midrand Kenyan data and analytics leader, founder of Charmed by Data and former Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Sasfin. Products: 900L InstaView™ Door-in-Door French Door Fridge with UVnano™ in Black Finish (https://apo-opa.co/3SKr5eF); 42L NeoChef™ Grill Microwave Oven in Stainless Finish (https://apo-opa.co/4f4TweN); 13Kg Front Loader with AI DD™ & Steam+™ in Black Finish (https://apo-opa.co/4wpZzSf). Thandi Mavata (South Africa) – The House Group, Johannesburg South African entrepreneur, author and women's-empowerment advocate, and founder of the Doek on Fleek movement. Products: 77 inch LG OLED evo AI G5 4K 165Hz Smart TV (https://apo-opa.co/4eUHWTq); [Wifi] 24k BTU DualCool+ Inverter (https://apo-opa.co/4wt1WDP) air conditioner; 3x LG UltraFine 27" QHD IPS Monitor with USB-C (https://apo-opa.co/4buggnp). Perpetual Kendi (Kenya) – Moses Molelekwa Arts Foundation, Tembisa Kenyan Pan-African entrepreneur and communications strategist, founder and CEO of Addleston PR and of the Laute Luxury Wines brand. Products: 65 inch LG QNED evo AI QNED86 MiniLED 4K 120Hz Smart TV (https://apo-opa.co/3QYRg0v); LG MR11 2300W, 4.2Ch AV Receiver System (https://apo-opa.co/4brSdW9).](https://businessinsights.africa/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/OIP-81-218x150.webp "How LG’s ‘Make Life Good’ turned an orphanage’s two-plate stove into a full kitchen")
