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How Kenya can plug skills gap in automotive sector

mechanic

A mechanic at workshop in Industrial area in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Nearly every major urban centre in Kenya has a motor garage or repair yard. Quite often, however, these facilities lack qualified mechanics with majority only having skills acquired from acting as ‘spanner boys’. This often results in costly damages for the motor vehicle owners.

Yet again some of these youth only while away their time at the yards for lack of anything to do. It is factual that majority of the idle and unemployed youth are found in the informal economic sector, to which the small-scale automotive businesses belong.

This is a clear manifestation of the desperate situation of the youth versus their entrepreneurial and innovative skills.

The Kenya Economic Survey Report 2017 indicates that the informal sector is the largest contributor to employment for the manufacturing sector, growing by 6.5 per cent in 2016 to 2.7 million persons.

However, although the informal sector provides employment opportunities, it is characterised by underemployment and low quality jobs thereby increasing vulnerability to poverty.

In Kenya, 17 per cent of the labour force is employed in the formal sector while the remaining 83 per cent are engaged in the informal sector.

There are myriad opportunities in the informal sector whose rapid growth in the last decade makes it a frontier of economic success for the youth.

The small-scale automotive repair sub-sector in Kenya has recorded tremendous growth, with between 3,000 - 9,000 motor vehicles being imported monthly into Kenya. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) predicts that there will be over five million motor vehicles on Kenyan roads by 2030.

This means more manpower to address current and expected rising motor vehicle repair needs.

Moreover, several global automotive manufacturers have recently committed to increase production in Kenya. Germany’s motoring giant Volkswagen, France’s Peugeot, Toyota and US-based Daimler Trucks Asia among others are some of the global automobile companies with major operations in Kenya.

These developments therefore present the informal automotive engineering sector with the motivation and potential to formalise and organise its operations, and subsequently reap from the flourishing industry.

READ: 24 complete KCB’s 2jiajiri skills training

KCB Foundation through 2jiajiri programme has forged partnerships that address skills and business capital gaps to enable the youth to effectively engage in sustainable automotive microenterprises.

The KCB Foundation, Toyota Kenya Foundation Registered Trustees (TKFRT) and Toyota Kenya Limited last year signed a partnership that will see automotive engineering graduates certified to own Toyota Service centres.

The partnership will enhance skills development and business start-ups for youth in automotive engineering.

Under the arrangement, young people will acquire automotive and business skills that will enable them to start their own businesses along the automotive engineering value chain.

Jane Mwangi is Executive Director, KCB Foundation.