PS Susan Mang’eni delivers the rollout statement at the 4 November 2026 media address in Nairobi. Photo: State Department for MSMEs Development.

Government procurement is Kenya’s biggest single market, and by law a third of it belongs to the young, to women and to persons with disabilities. For the 2026/27 financial year the national budget stands at an estimated KES 4.8 trillion, presenting procurable opportunities of not less than KES 1 trillion. The 30 percent reservation under Section 53(6) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 therefore translates to not less than KES 300 billion this year alone.

Most of that money never reaches its owners. Absorption remains low, and the Principal Secretary for the State Department for MSMEs Development, Hon. Susan Mang’eni, named the barriers at the programme’s launch in Nairobi on 4 November 2026: low awareness of AGPO, complex application procedures, low business formalisation and limited enterprise readiness.

The answer launched that morning is the NYOTA AGPO digital training: the fourth component of the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement project, the World Bank supported programme that rolled out in March 2025 across all 1,450 wards. It is expected to benefit more than 600,000 young entrepreneurs and to widen NYOTA’s total reach to more than 820,000 positions, and because women beyond the youth age band are also admitted, the PS expects registrations to run into millions.

Demand arrived before the announcement did. The short code opened quietly the day before the launch, and more than 55,000 young people had already registered by the morning of 4 November, which the PS offered as proof that Kenyan youth “are always looking for the opportunity”.

It is a free, self-paced course of five modules spread over ten weeks. Each module runs two weeks: one week of lessons, five to six per module, then a practical week of webinars and live interactive sessions with subject-matter experts and industry captains. A quiz closes every module, and the next one unlocks only after a pass. Fail and you repeat, as many times as it takes. Content comes in both English and Swahili, with provisions being made for learners with disabilities, including the visually impaired.

Self-paced means rolling cohorts. Register today and Module One opens immediately, with the practical week following; tomorrow’s registrants start their own Module One while today’s cohort moves to practicals. A lesson takes about an hour a day, progress saves mid-lesson (resume between customers, in the PS’s example) and the platform picks up where you stopped. You can technically sprint the modules in a weekend, but the pacing exists on purpose: “you’ll be cheating yourself.”

The five modules:

Nothing. The short code is zero-rated, so even the registration session costs no airtime, and the PS repeated it for emphasis: the training is free of charge.

Eligibility is wider than earlier NYOTA components. The first three targeted youth aged 18 to 29, up to 35 for persons with disabilities, and barred anyone who had progressed past secondary school. This component drops both walls: all youth up to 35 under the constitutional definition qualify, diploma and degree holders included, because many young people are already in business. Women and persons with disabilities face no upper age limit at all, any Kenyan citizen aged 18 and above. Men without disabilities above 35 are the one group outside this window; the PS said the government will come up with something for them soon, her statement rather than an announced programme. Previous NYOTA applicants, successful or not, are explicitly invited back: Business Support drew more than 2.5 million applicants, the job-experience component close to 300,000, and Recognition of Prior Learning more than 60,000.

If you applied to any earlier NYOTA component your details are already on the platform and registration takes moments. First-time users enter their details, including location, so the programme can target support.

Access does not require a smartphone. A survey done while preparing the project found close to 90 percent of young people own one, and for the rest the subsidised data bundle being organised with Safaricom will also work in cyber cafés. Free Wi-Fi hotspots in market areas are expanding under the digital superhighway programme, and youth empowerment centres and learning institutions offer computer access.

Graduates receive a signed proficiency certificate that, in the PS’s words, opens a door to government tenders. Its value runs wider: procuring entities see a contractor who has been trained, and the catalytic funds, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Uwezo Fund, Women Enterprise Fund and Kenya Industrial Estates, see a borrower who is enterprise-ready. Banks, she said, can look at you differently. Learners without a registered business get linked to the Business Registration Service to register a sole proprietorship under government-negotiated waivers, then to the free AGPO certificate, the actual entry ticket to reserved tenders.

No money is attached to this component; the investment is the skill and the linkage. The platform is permanent, Season One is AGPO, and the modules will be updated for future seasons. The financing rails are being built alongside: an offsetting mechanism that lets AGPO contractors discount their invoices within 60 days of delivery, sitting next to the recent Cabinet directive prioritising settlement of pending bills of KES 50 million and below, and a plan to repurpose the catalytic funds into structured trade-finance products.

Two lenses. The forward one is the PS’s: a KES 4.8 trillion budget, at least KES 1 trillion procurable, and KES 300 billion-plus reserved for 2026/27. The backward one is Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data for 2025/26, reported in May 2026:

Reserved money that nobody bids for lapses back into the general pool. The PS added one figure from her own desk, and it is worse than the national average: even where an accounting officer budgets specifically for AGPO tenders in the procurement plan, uptake hardly reaches 15 percent. A dedicated budget line does not by itself produce bidders. On accountability for the training investment her answer was outcome-based: the platform persists, the modules get updated, and the measure is how many beneficiaries actually win and perform tenders, visible, she said, within about a year.

Yes. The course is free, the *254# short code is zero-rated so registration costs no airtime, and the AGPO certificate itself is free. A subsidised data bundle for enrolled learners is being organised with Safaricom, per the signed press release.

Youth up to 35 at any education level, including diploma and degree holders, plus women and persons with disabilities with no upper age limit. Kenyan citizenship and age 18 plus are required, and previous NYOTA applicants qualify whether or not they were selected before.

Ten weeks: five modules, each two weeks of lessons then practicals, with a pass-mark quiz gating each module. Cohorts roll continuously and retakes are unlimited.

No to all three. The subsidised data works in cyber cafés for learners without devices, and graduates without a business are linked to Business Registration Service registration under waivers, then to the AGPO certificate.

Call the NYOTA toll-free line 0800 222 221 or email [email protected]. For certificate matters use agpo.go.ke or any Huduma Centre.