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Investing in youth skills is Kenya's competitive edge
Students at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Nyeri during the official launch of Ajira Digital Club at the institution on June 24, 2022.
Kenya’s greatest untapped resource is not buried in its soil. It is in its classrooms, its estates, and its innovation hubs. With more than 75 per cent of the population under 35, our demographic makeup offers a unique competitive advantage.
But this advantage will only yield returns if we invest strategically in youth skills, digital capabilities, and talent development that align with the evolving world of work.
The World Bank’s Future of Work Report 2025 underscores a pressing concern: a mismatch between the skills young people acquire and those demanded by today’s economy. In Kenya, many youths are creative, ambitious, and digitally inclined, yet lack structured support to convert potential into income-generating opportunities. This is a missed opportunity for both national development and inclusive economic growth.
Digital technology presents a clear pathway to bridge this gap. However, to truly harness the promise of ICT, young people need more than internet access. They require structured pathways to identify, nurture, and monetise their talents.
This begins with participation in digital competitions like Google Code-in, Africa Code Week, and the Huawei ICT Competition, which help reveal and refine individual strengths. Youth also benefit immensely from joining tech communities, whether on GitHub, LinkedIn, or at local innovation hubs, where collaboration fuels growth and resilience.
To become professionals, the youth must access world-class training and certifications from providers like Cisco, Microsoft, Google, and Huawei. Equally important is personal branding. The youth should build digital portfolios on platforms like Behance and maintain professional profiles that reflect their skills and ambitions.
However, technical skills alone do not make one economically viable. Young innovators must also grasp the rules of the digital economy, understanding e-commerce regulations, digital taxation and intellectual property rights. Integrating skills development with economic literacy and mentorship can lead to globally competitive and self-reliant digital creators.
Market-relevant tech skills
Some private sector partners are already rising to this challenge. Huawei’s Seeds for the Future and ICT Academy initiatives have equipped thousands of Kenyan youth with market-relevant tech skills and global exposure. These programmes not only close the skills gap; they open doors to career growth and entrepreneurship.
The Kenyan government is also actively enabling this transformation. Programmes like Ajira Digital, the Presidential Digital Talent Programme, and the Kenya National Digital Master Plan are connecting the youth with online jobs and freelance marketplaces. These platforms are turning digital skills into livelihoods and preparing the youth for the gig economy.
At the National Youth Council, our role is to champion, coordinate, and scale youth-focused initiatives. With partners like Huawei, we support training, while our platform, Kuna Form, enables the youth to access pathways to commercialise skills. We also work closely with policymakers and private actors to advocate youth-centred investment, inclusion, and innovation. The private sector has a critical role to play not just through corporate social responsibility, but through direct collaboration. Companies like Safaricom, Microsoft, and Andela have invested in boot camps, innovation hubs, and mentorship pipelines that create shared value.
Government-supported initiatives, such as the Jitume Digital Hubs, are complementing these efforts by providing access to technology, training, mentorship, and networking opportunities that help transform ideas into viable businesses.
With over 290 hubs set up and more than 400,000 youths reached, Jitume is expanding and bridging the digital divide across counties. In a further boost to digital innovation, Huawei, in partnership with Qhala, Konza Technopolis, and academic institutions, recently hosted a continent-wide AI Hackathon during Africa AI Literacy Week 2025.
The event brought together 50 youths from tertiary institutions in Africa, focusing on building AI-driven solutions in critical areas such as fintech, agriculture, healthcare, education, and governance. By promoting AI literacy and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, the hackathon exemplified how targeted initiatives can equip the youth with future-ready skills while tackling local challenges.
Digital skills
Alongside these efforts, innovation spaces like iHub, Nailab, and LakeHub continue to equip young innovators with the tools, mentorship, and capital needed to move from idea to execution. These are the environments where talent grows into enterprise. That said, our efforts must be inclusive. Gender gaps in digital skills remain a barrier.
Only 30 per cent of tech roles in Sub-Saharan Africa are held by women, according to Unesco. In Kenya, structural gaps, safety concerns, and limited access to Stem education limit girls’ participation in tech and entrepreneurship. The National Youth Council (NYC) is addressing this through gender-responsive programming, mentorship, and safe spaces for girls.
Kenya can learn from best practices and scale such models through policy, innovation, and investment. Platforms like the AU’s One Million Next Level Initiative and UNDP’s YouthConnekt provide the youth with skills, funding, and global visibility in innovation and policy spaces. To unlock Kenya’s demographic dividend, we must treat youth skilling as both a social imperative and an economic strategy.
Empowered youth are beneficiaries of development, job creators, problem solvers, and the drivers of national progress. The NYC is committed to ensuring no youth is left behind. We are building an enabling environment where every youth can convert talent into opportunity and ideas into impact.
The writer is the Ag. CEO, National Youth Council.
