Young Entrepreneur Grows Kangemi Salon Through NYOTA Fund Support

Every small business owner knows the sinking feeling of watching a client leave without getting served.

A customer requests a treatment you don’t offer. A supplier calls, but you can’t afford to buy stock in bulk.

You know your business could grow, but you don’t have the cash to push it to the next level.

For salonist Millicent Atwoli, that reality played out every day inside her fledgling project in Kangemi.

She had already done the hard part. She had left her home in Kaimosi, Vihiga County, moved to Nairobi to pursue a career in beauty.

She’d started with an unpaid internship period at a friend’s salon to learn the trade,

Millicent had eventually opened a salon of her own, but progress was slow.  What stood between her and growth wasn’t skill or customers.

It was working capital.

“I couldn’t always buy enough salon products and supplies,” she says.

“Sometimes I’d have to buy small quantities because that’s what I could afford.”

That changed when she became one of the young entrepreneurs supported under the Government’s National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) Programme.

With the grant, Millicent bought salon treatments and supplies in bulk for the first time.

It meant she could keep essential products on her shelves, serve clients without interruption and focus on growing the business instead of constantly worrying about the next purchase.

Today, her salon continues to grow. Her ambition is even bigger.

“I want to expand and own several salons in the future,” she says.

Millicent’s story is one of thousands beginning to emerge from the NYOTA Programme.

Supported by the Government of Kenya and the World Bank, the initiative is designed to help young people move beyond survival and build sustainable businesses.

Rather than offering grants alone, NYOTA combines entrepreneurship training, mentorship, financial literacy, business development support, access to finance and market linkages to help young entrepreneurs build enterprises that can grow over time.

The response has been significant.

More than 2.5 million young Kenyans applied to join the programme.

From those applications, over 121,800 entrepreneurs were selected from all 1,450 wards across the country.

More than 91,000 beneficiaries completed Business Development Services training before receiving their first business grants, with over Ksh2.28 billion invested directly into youth-owned businesses during the programme’s first phase.

By the end of the first mentorship cycle, 96 per cent of beneficiaries had established operating businesses.

The businesses themselves look different.

Some beneficiaries are running grocery shops.

Others operate food kiosks, fishing businesses, salons, boda boda enterprises and mechanical workshops.

Together, they tell the story of young Kenyans turning opportunity into enterprise.

Now, the programme is entering its second phase.

An additional 122,203 young entrepreneurs across the country are set to benefit through a KSh3.06 billion investment.

The rollout includes 33,269 first-time beneficiaries receiving business grants and 88,934 existing entrepreneurs receiving a second round of financing to strengthen businesses they have already established.

The shift marks an evolution from helping young people start businesses to helping them scale them.

For entrepreneurs like Millicent, that distinction matters.

Starting a business is one milestone. Keeping it alive, serving customers consistently and finding room to expand is another challenge altogether.

Back in Kangemi, every client who walks into her salon is another reminder of how far she has come – from a young woman learning the ropes in someone else’s salon to a business owner planning her next branch.

Her story doesn’t begin with a grant.

This begins with a decision to pursue a dream, and a timely grant from the government that helped move it forward.