Gov’t Releases Uwezo Fund Countrywide

The law requires the initial amount as allocated by parliament in the 2013/2014 financial year to be 6 billion shillings while outlining how the fund will be used.

Out of the total Uwezo Fund, 180 million is required to be retained by the fund board to facilitate both national and constituency level administrative functions.

A further 465.6 million has been earmarked for training of beneficiaries of the fund as demanded by the law as the remaining 75% is shared equally across all constituencies as a quarter is shared based on the poverty index.

The Uwezo Fund is a youth and women’s fund that President Uhuru Kenyatta had pledged and that was meant for the presidential run-off to youth and women groups.

Uwezo Fund was also meant to expand access to finance through grants and credit to promote youth and women businesses and enterprises at the constituency level and thereby enhancing economic growth towards the realization of the goals of Vision 2030.

This was to further enable them take advantage of the 30% government procurement preference for youth, women and persons with disabilities through its Capacity Building Programme.