Small medium Enterprises play a critical role in the Kenyan economy constituting 98% of all businesses, employing over 30% of Kenya’s youthful population and contributes over 30% to Kenya’s GDP.
Despite their obvious importance, 3 out 5 SMEs don’t make it past their third birthday. Some basic challenges that contribute to this high mortality are; lack of management skills, access to market challenges, access to appropriate finance, lack of information, rapid technological changes and low ease of doing business among others.
With proper support, Startups and SMEs have the potential to grow organically, create more job opportunities and engage with investment partners at arm’s length .
We seek to address these challenges by offering incubation space for Kenyan startups and SMEs to bootstrap for a period of six months. We are partnering with Viffa Consult to offer this program. We will leverage our experience in running incubation programs through our entrepreneurship support center(mlab East Africa), partners’ expertise, rich alumni network, our social capital and research done over the years.
The program will afford entrepreneurs bespoke end to end business support letting them focus on their core competencies. The business support is delivered by experienced experts who are themselves entrepreneurs striking a delicate balance between street smartness and hard core experience.
Who should apply
- Transitioning from work or university
- Are you a company seeking to develop a new product
- Have a business idea, prototype or MVP(minimum Viable Product)
- Can you commit to a physical program in Nairobi for at least six months starting 1st August 2019
What we offer
- Desk space and office admin support
- Management support and training through continuous capacity building on an individual capacity
- Business, Legal and Finance advisory support
- Market linkages
- Access to appropriate finance through our Investment partners
- Access to our cutting edge SME research
- Access to a community of Kenyan and international entrepreneurs
To join the program APPLY HERE
ABOUT IHUB and VIFFA CONSULT
The program is a collaboration between Viffa Consult, a business support service provider to startups and SMEs in sub saharan Africa with a focus on consultancy, Business process outsourcing (BPO), research and analytics. iHub, founded in 2010, is a globally recognized organization that is deeply steeped in the local tech innovation culture. iHub serves the tech community, by connecting organizations and people, building market-relevant solutions and being part of the curve of innovation.
The role of the iHub is to be the best African support system for ICT-focused entrepreneurs who aspire to create great companies addressing the unique challenges in the African market. We strongly believe that we will play an essential role in leapfrogging the African technology entrepreneurship ecosystem by creating an environment of trust and experimentation that facilitates the growth of entrepreneurs and their companies. We recognize that this is only possible by collaborating and partnering as we have, with local and global stakeholders.
