Absa Bank Kenya has partnered with Ajira Digital to provide training on digital skills and financial literacy for 1 million youth in the next one year.
Ran by the Ministry of ICT in partnership with the Kenya Private Sector Association (KEPSA), the Ajira Digital platform aims to reduce youth unemployment by providing digital and digitally-enabled work for youth in Kenya.
The deal with Absa will see the bank make its ReadytoWork job training and internship program available on the Ajira Digital platform. Applicants will be issued certificates on completion of various modules.
The platform can be used on a computer, mobile phone or tablet. Absa is also investing Ksh50 million in the development of a ReadytoWork app.
Absa Bank Kenya CEO Jeremy Awori noted the havoc the Covid-19 pandemic had wreaked on the economy, stating that digital work programs would be a key driver of job creation as the economy looks to recover.
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“We are slowly coming out of an environment where many people lost their jobs. We see development of new tools to support remote working and new ways to working on the digital front going to create more jobs,” he stated.
The Ajira Digital program was unveiled by the government in 2016. Among its objectives was to bridge the gap between skills demand and lack of jobs.
The overall objective of the project is to make Kenya a freelance hub and the global destination for online work. Kenya has one of the region’s highest youth unemployment rates.
2019 census data revealed that 5,341,182 or 38.9 percent of the 13,777,600 young Kenyans are jobless. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data indicates that 1.7 million jobs were lost in 2020 in the formal sector as the pandemic took a toll on the economy.
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