Ongoza

Ongoza:   A first-time grantee in 2018

Based in Kenya, Ongoza was born out of a need to help ambitious youth gain needed skills and advisory support to improve the chances of their success.  Viewing these young people as the business leaders of the future, Ongoza considers itself an accelerator for early stage, high growth young entrepreneurs and provides a full year of intensive business coaching, market linkages, and access to debt financing that can propel productive growth.

Hundreds of thousands of young people enter the Kenyan labor market and compete for a limited number of jobs.  Most are not armed with the skills to land a formal job, and that leaves them facing unemployment or attempting to start their own business.  But, that lack of core business skills, structure and capital challenge the likelihood for success.

Ongoza steps in to support high potential youth-led with critical advisory assistance related to such key issues as sales strategy, product development, and financial management. They work in collaboration with NGOs and government agencies to tap capital and debt resources.  Reducing youth unemployment generates a ripple effect of positive impact across society, improving both the stability and economic standards of the Kenyan society.

After a year in the program, the expectation is that the entrepreneurs will see dramatic improvement in the annual revenues of their companies (increasing by 2-3x) and generate several new jobs in the process.  The goal is self-sufficiency. Ongoza then selects some of these entrepreneurs to enter its core accelerator program and benefit from additional support for continued growth.