The County Government of Uasin Gishu is looking forward to engaging various stakeholders and associates to strengthen capacities to make the county known across the globe on matters of business.

While delivering Governor Jonathan Bii’s message on Thursday during the graduation ceremony of over 210 SMEs who were trained on building business resilience, Trade, Industrialization, Tourism, Cooperatives, and Enterprise Development Martha Cheruto said the county is the region’s economic hub appreciating the role played by the business community and other stakeholders for the creation of county’s favourable environment for local and international investors.

The Nguzo Kumi manifesto under trade focuses on strengthening SMEs. In this regard, we will continue partnering with partners to market the county as the preferred destination for investment” added Cheruto

Stanbic Bank CEO Dr. Joshua Waigara challenged the young entrepreneurs to concentrate on building their businesses, set their ambitions and navigate through various challenges noting that their small steps will be greater in the future.

Managing resilience is one of the things that can make you get moving and it is always our role to build enterprises to enable you to create jobs and opportunities for other people,” said Waigara

Luis Bosch, the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) said their focus is to reduce unemployment through SME capacity-building partnerships with counties thanking the county for its continued support for the implementation of the programs and projects.

The partnership with GIZ/Stanbic Foundation and Stanbic Bank earlier saw the county government receive about Ksh 7.5m to facilitate some SMEs’ recovery from the effects of covid-19 pandemic.

Acting Chief Officer for Cooperatives Nixon Cheplong urged the graduands to go and impact the learned skills to improve their businesses further calling them to incorporate the art of savings.

Over 150 County youth who benefited from STEP-4Y capacity building on entrepreneurship, and leadership skills were also present.

Dr. Mildred Nawiri from the STEP 4-Y, MSE resilience representative Pauline Mbayah, Directors Kipleting Mengich (Trade) and Isaac Lagat (Cooperatives and Enterprise Development) were among present.