Social enterprise DijITali is offering entrepreneurship skills to over 480 digital centers commonly known as cyber cafes. The project has so far created 200 new jobs in the last 18 months, and supported employment for an additional 500 young people who own digital centers across the country.
With about 83% of Kenya’s workforce in the informal sector, there is a need to focus on the informal sector and enhance skills to sustain the youth in this sector.
The departure from the term cyber café into digital center was prompted by the fact that micro-enterprises are no longer just serving as a platform for people to access the internet. They are doing a lot more in the communities by working with larger businesses, schools and even hospitals and places of worship.
DijiTali selected the digital centers to work with based on the locations and capacity. Its targeted inititiatives has seen the number of digital centers grow from 172 at the end of 2020 to 487 in October, with more cybercafes applying to be considered.
“Since we started working with our DijiTali centers in June 2020, over 33% of the centers have increased their incomes by between 60% and 200%. This impact is as a result of capacity building, asset financing, upskilling and opportunity creation,” said Tania Ngima, Managing Director DijITali.
Ms. Ngima further explained that part of the capacity and skills developed for the Dijitali centers and their shop attendants. These include design skills, marketing 101, tendering services, e-commerce, and digital marketing, E-citizen, and E-government training, cashflow and financial management.
In addition to training, Dijitali has launched an innovative B2B offering by connecting clients and partners. The project’s ideal client is one who wants to expand their footprint into the peri-urban and rural areas without significant investment into rent, staff and other overheads. In this case, the Dijitali centers can act as the client’s local, periodical satellite offices or solution partners, giving them access to a community that already has a trusting relationship with the centers.