Laikipia created 6,074 jobs in the manufacturing sector between the years 2018 and 2020, the latest data indicates.

The jobs were from 846 establishments engaged in leather, textiles, dairy products, transport equipment and
bakery.

A move by the county government to create the Laikipia Innovation and Enterprise Development Program (LIEDP) has led to the emergence of new small and medium enterprises.

The LIEDP handholds budding Laikipia enterprises by guiding them through all the aspects of the business from
registration, development of business plans, certification process, intellectual protection to financial and
market linkages.

By August this year, about 1,500 SMEs were being nurtured under the programme.

The latest data sets in the Laikipia County Statistical Abstract 2021 show that LIEDP supported 409 manufacturing
enterprises in 2020, creating 1,502 jobs in the county.

Overall, the 537 enterprises under the programme last year had created 2,658 jobs.

Under the programme, 200 officers have been repurposing to full-time Business Development Officers (BDOs) after
intensive training to support the SMEs. None of the county’s 15 wards had less than 12 SMEs under the
programme cutting through manufacturing, mining, agriculture, creative economy, among other sectors.

The county also registered growth in the number of registered businesses from 14,975 in 2017 to 23,586
businesses in 2020 with the manufacturing sector growing almost four times from 443 in 2017 to 1,445 in 2020.

Refocus

This can be attributed to the county government refocus of its programmes to enterprise development through
manufacturing as a catalyst for industrialization.

The County Enterprise Fund and the Cooperative Revolving Fund have supported the enterprises with affordable
loans. Over 237 groups and 163 individuals have benefited from these two funds. So far 74 “Made in Laikipia”
products such as Nina Yoghurt are on the supermarket shelves.

The Department of Trade, Tourism and Cooperative has been training women groups doing beadworks in the county to support the cottage industry. Some of the groups are Namunyak Beadwork, Ngarendare, Nalepo Ositat Self Help
Group, Nanunyak Osuguroi Self-help Group, Tenebo Twala Cultural Manyatta and Kimanjo Leather Processors.

The county is empowering the groups and connecting them to the industry, increasing their sales and creating
employment for women to engage in income-generating activities.