BLAZE, a sub-brand of Safaricom that was created to give youth aged 26 years and below products, services and benefits tailored specifically to meet their everyday needs, last weekend held a special edition Be Your Own Boss Summit at the National Youth Service (NYS) Yatta Unit in Machakos County.
The summit, which marked a historic event since the inception of BLAZE in 2016, was the first ever to be held at a National Youth Service Grounds with over 5,000 recruits, service men and women engaging and learning from BLAZE mentors and partners.
“This year, we have engaged over 150,000 youth across the country through BYOB and supported 96 young entrepreneurs to a tune of KES 3.2 million. We saw it fit to conclude this year’s BYOB activities by engaging the NYS for the first time since BLAZE was launched in 2016,” said Michael Joseph, Safaricom CEO.
Attendees of the summit were drawn from the three NYS units within the Machakos area, which have a total population of 10,000. The Yatta Unit leads with a population of 5000, followed by the Athi-River Unit with 3,000 and the Mavoloni Unit with 2,000.
Following the Yatta summit, BLAZE plans to hold more summits at NYS facilities across the country, where it will work in tandem with NYS mentors to deliver programs that are tailor-made to the interests of NYS recruits.
“As an institution, we are glad to host BLAZE by Safaricom as they play a great role in preparing young people for the future. We hope to continue working together in the coming years to expand the reach of National Youth Service, which is one of our main objectives,” said James Mmata, Director of Operations, National Youth Service.
Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) features youth mentorship summits and creation camps all focused on empowering Kenyan youth to achieve success by providing valuable information, skills and networking opportunities in a variety of fields including: creative arts, fashion, film and photography, music, agriculture, sales and production and sports.
