DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES BOON FOR KENYAN YOUTHS IN JOB CREATION

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenyan youth are cashing in on the growth of digital technologies, with many using the platforms to create jobs for themselves and others.

East Africa's biggest economy is now awash with youths earning a living exclusively online.

Some are running blogs, other e-commerce platforms while a huge number are working as social media influencers.

The latter is currently among the most sought-after digital workers by corporates and politicians to promote products, courses or sensitize the public.

Even the government is turning to the influencers when it wants to drive a certain agenda and to reach to the youth.

Kenya is among the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the highest number of social media users.

There are 8.2 million active social media users in the East African nation, according to Digital 4 Africa, a think-tank in Kenya. About 70 percent of them are on Facebook, 14 percent on Instagram and 12 percent on Twitter.

This has come as a boon to the influencers who are cashing in on demand for their services.

"There is good money on social media, you only need to figure out how to make it," said Gilbert Matsio, who trained as a journalist but now blogs for an entertainment website in Kenya.

His work is to write entertainment stories focusing on celebrities and review events and he is earning a living from it.

"When I left college four years ago, my dream was to work in one of the top media houses in Kenya. Then reality sunk in that jobs were hard to come by. A friend showed me opportunities online and I have never looked back," said Matsio, noting in a good month he earns 150,000 shillings (1,500 U.S. dollars).

He has over 50,000 followers on both Twitter and Instagram, which he calls his social media asset. But that is not all that he does, he is also a social media influencer.

He was among dozens of influencers hired two weeks ago by a multinational that was launching new margarine in Kenya.

"Our work was to make the company trend on social media and highlight the aspects of the product. We did it," he said.

Joseph Macharia, the founder of Mkulima Young, an e-commerce platform, said he created the platform after noticing farmers are not marketing their products directly to consumers.

"They were selling to brokers at a lower price, what was making them earn less," he said.

His website now provides farmers in Kenya and across Africa a platform to sell and seek goods to buy.

"Digital technologies provide farmers with additional marketing opportunities and act as an enabler in solving problems as farmers place their products on the site for a wider market catchment," he said.

"A digital economy offers new job opportunities for the youth, growth of micro, small and medium enterprises and for the majority of the Kenyans who are farmers, the digitization of the agricultural sector offers new opportunities through innovations that upscale the agricultural value chain," according to the Digital Economy Blueprint 2019 by Kenya's Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology.

The Kenyan government is currently running the Ajira Digital Program, which has enabled over 630,000 youths to have access to online jobs, according to the Ministry.

Bernard Mwaso, a software developer with Edell IT Solution in Nairobi, noted that digital technologies are the new frontier for job creation in Kenya as the other sectors slow down.

"Digital technologies are not only working as enablers of other services but they are themselves providing opportunities. Mobile money is a good example where it is facilitating business and has created over 240,000 jobs for agents," he said.