Kenyan Youth flock to farms for extra cash

Most Kenyan employed youth are “dirtying their hands” in farms as a side hustle despite claims the millennials would rather have fun than work hard.

According to the GeoPoll Rapid Survey, 23 per cent of young employees—those aged 18 to 35, or 70 per cent of the workforce—invested in agriculture as a side job.

This is despite the perception that the age group is intolerant, hippy and most of the time “wants it, and wants it now”. “These young people are like no other generation before them.

They were born and brought up with technology and take a lot of things for granted,” says Joel Kimani, an independent human resource consultant.

However, the survey notes that some of the youth have even gone ahead to turn the second jobs into their main focus by borrowed capital from lending institutions and relatives.

Agriculture topped ICT, entertainment, online business and logistics as the most popular form of side hustle for millennials in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The survey shows that in Kenya, 23 per cent of the youth invest in agriculture, 18 per cent in online businesses, while 17 per cent invest in ICT.

Transport business and logistics are the least-liked opportunities among the millennials. Having a side job when in school or when working is also not as prevalent as perceived, as 60 per cent of millennials are not engaged in any.

While Kenya is renowned as the regional ICT hub, it is in Uganda where ICT is the next most popular line for side business, a very close second (20 per cent) to agribusiness (24.4 per cent) among the youth.

However, 35 per cent of Kenyan youth started their side businesses with cash borrowed through mobile loans. “Out of those who indicated that they have side hustles, the main sources of their capital is in form of loans from banks, relatives, mobile money and micro-finances in that order,” says the survey.

Source:http://www.mediamaxnetwork.co.ke