20/01/2026
One of risks of Kenya’s NYOTA initiative is the high likelihood that most beneficiaries will go for necessity based entrepreneurship in the form of small trade and service businesses.
The advantages of this option is the simplicity of the business model, low capital requirement, immediate revenue and existing awareness of the products and services in the market. The flip side? Too many businesses fighting for an almost constant number of customers.
But these businesses would do better if they were part of an ecosystem of opportunity based businesses because products and services of small businesses can easily become processes of larger businesses. A Boda Boda and its rider are always more profitable as part of a distribution channel of a larger business than when a single rider is a small business by himself.
It would be more impactful for NYOTA to fund one proven and scalable local opportunity based business with a larger amount of money then create incentives for the business to integrate 100 small businesses in its ecosystem than split the same fund across 100 small businesses.