Kenya’s 2nd Lady Mrs. Rachel Ruto and Dr. Manu Chandaria have started a unique entrepreneurship programme in High Schools dubbed LEAP HUBS .
Launched on Friday the 7th March 2014, the event saw 9 Secondary Schools from Nairobi and Kiambu Counties receive 25 computers donated by the Chandaria Foundation and the Global Peace Foundation for a full LEAP HUB set-up. Earlier another school, Mary Leaky High School received a donation of Kshs. 400,000 to set its hub running.
According to the them, a LEAP HUB is a dedicated space within the school where students are incubated and nurtured to be creative, innovative and be able to launch sustainable business ventures and social enterprises. Introduced in Africa for the first time, LEAP HUBS aim at addressing the unemployment crisis especially in East Africa where more than 6 million youth enter the job market each year and struggle to find jobs.The program initiated by the Global Peace Foundation is being piloted in Mary Leakey High School, Mang’u Boys High School, the Kenya High School, Moi Forces Academy-Nairobi, Our Lady of Fatima Secondary School, Maina Wanjigi Secondary School, Embakasi Girls Secondary School, Kariobangi North Girls and BuruBuru Girls and will spread to other parts of the country in due course.
Participating students will be taken through leadership and entrepreneurship training focusing on business plan development, financial literacy and critical 21st century skills that will empower them to be self-reliant job creators as opposed to job seekers.
The introduction of LEAP HUBS in Kenya comes a few months after the launch of the Chandaria Business Incubation Center at Kenyatta University which is already mentoring and nurturing business innovations at the university level.Other business incubation centers exist in Strathmore University and USIU Chandaria School of Business and students from these universities and reputable entrepreneurs in Kenya will be linked to the LEAP HUBS to mentor high school students to develop business mindsets when they are still young. A revolving seed capital will be granted to each LEAP HUB to assist the students implement their business plans.