SHUJAAZ BIZ

The multi-platform digital tool gives Shujaaz fans access to over 750 peer-to-peer training videos, where they can learn directly from entrepreneurial young people across our network about how they’ve set up and run successful micro-businesses. Shujaaz Biz is accelerated by community-organised in-person and online events across Kenya. Together, inspired fans engage with the Shujaaz Biz structured programme of workshops and tools: building networks, confidence and the agency to build and scale enterprises of their own.

As of April 2021, the first phase of the ‘Shujaaz Biz’ online training programme has engaged over 250,000 young people through peer-to-peer learning. Now integrated across Shujaaz social media platforms, this year young entrepreneurs in our network will be able to access an integrated ‘Business Basics’ training course via our newest venture; MESH, the first online community for entrepreneurs in the informal economy.

For most young Kenyans, self-employment and entrepreneurship in the informal sector is their only option for securing income and a livelihood. Across Kenya today, there are an estimated 3 million young people running their own businesses, that’s 31% of 15-24-year-olds.

Kenya’s young micro-entrepreneurs earn double the normal income for their age group, adding some $290m a month to their local economies. And, according to our 2019 national survey, 29% of micro-entrepreneurs create work opportunities for one or more people in their neighbourhoods.

In our conversations with young people, among the primary barriers they identify to setting up or growing a business was limited access to relevant skills training; and feeling they lacked access to the networks they need to succeed. That’s where ‘Shujaaz Biz’ comes in; providing young people with peer-to-peer training, embedded within a digital and real-world community, that provides them with the tools, networks and confidence they need to succeed.