The plan by the Youth Enterprise Development Fund to de-register young Kenyans aged between 18 and 35 from the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) blacklist of loan defaulters is a step in the right direction.
According to a report published by the Nation on 23rd May, Mr. Ronnie Osumba, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund's chairman, said his organization was working towards lifting the youths of the hooks of CRB blacklist. He spoke at the Youth Economic dialogues.
If this plan succeeds, then it will economically empower young jobless Kenyans who have, for a long time, been put at bay when it comes to starting their own businesses. Due to lack of adequate jobs, most of young graduates and non-graduates turn to businesses as the only way out of poverty. Getting a capital to start up business ventures has always been made difficult by CRB and financial institutions which insist on collateral and pay slips as a pre-requisite for accessing loans.
Many Banks and other financial institutions have denied young people loans on the basis that they do not have collateral and/or they do not have pay slips. One is prompted to wonder where a young, jobless person is supposed to get a pay slip. He does not even have a job. These tough requirements by financial institutions have only seen the rich and the employed easily access loans and continue to get richer and richer while the jobless and the poor continue to remain poor. Credit Reference Bureau has also made many youths to lose hopes.
Once someone is blacklisted as a loan defaulter by CRB, he or she cannot access loans from any financial institution. The plan, therefore, of removing youths from the blacklist will free youths and enable them to jump-start their business ventures. Youths constitute the largest percentage of the Kenyan population. If they are given a chance to grow financially, then the economy of the whole Country will grow tremendously.
Empowering youths is empowering the whole nation.