Institutional strengthening of MSMEs in Lake Naivasha Basin

The greatest barriers to success among many micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya remain to be the knowledge gap on available financial resources that could boost their businesses, poor book keeping, knowledge on market linkages and generally fear of the unknown.

The greatest barriers to success among many micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya remain to be the knowledge gap on available financial resources that could boost their businesses, poor book keeping, knowledge on market linkages and generally fear of the unknown. It with this realization that WWF-Kenya Green horticulture At Lake Naivasha (GOALAN) project funded by European Union undertook institutional capacity assessment of the project’s micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) in July 2018 to understand better the gaps and come up with training regime for enhancing their capacity. The findings revealed that most of the project beneficiaries recoded low literacy levels, lacked sufficient knowledge good agricultural practices (GAP) and very few had been trained in sustainable agriculture.

Based on the findings, the GOALAN project undertook two weeks of intensive training of the MSMEs to address all the gaps identified. The multi-institutional trainings involved trainers from WWF-Kenya, Equity Bank and department of Agriculture from the various counties the project is operating. The involvement of the various institutions was geared towards maximizing on the added advantages of having the various groups while also helping in the sustainability of the project especially with the presence of the county governments who also have agriculture and food security as one of their key deliverables and would also be available during follow up. Equity bank, a key partner in the project used this opportunity to address financial misconceptions and challenges the MSMEs faced.

The other key areas of learning the over 200 MSMEs undertook include leadership, governance, record keeping and participatory development. The skills acquired will go a long way in enhancing their ability to engage more towards increasing their productivity and income at the end of the day.

One of the trainees, Florence Muthoni summarized the training’s outcome as follows, ‘’from today I am transitioning from my bank phobia to viewing them as partners in progress. My farm will now become not only a business but also a source of employment for me and others that I have employed.’’

By Nickson Orwa

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