Universities must make entrepreneurship education more practical and focused on solving real-world problems.
Director of Innovations and Intellectual Property Management Prof Wagacha Maina said higher education institutions should move beyond classroom theory and give students practical exposure to business, mentorship, financing and industry networks.
Speaking during the University of Nairobi young entrepreneurs’ incubation programme graduation, Prof. Maina said institutions of higher learning must step up efforts to turn graduate training into jobs and sustainable enterprises.
“We learn from books, but we have gone beyond academic work to real implementation,” Maina said.
The programme sought to bridge the gap between university training and the realities of starting and running a business.
The initiative brought together academia, industry practitioners and enterprise-support organisations to equip participants with practical skills to develop, test and grow viable businesses.
It was implemented by the African Women Studies Centre in collaboration with the University’s Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, Department of Environmental and Biosystems Engineering, Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Technology, and Equity Group.
The programme comes at a time when thousands of young Kenyans leave universities every year to compete for limited employment opportunities.
For many graduates, academic qualifications alone are no longer enough to guarantee a job, increasing the need for universities to provide skills that can support both employment and enterprise creation.
The entrepreneurs participating in the programme are developing businesses in areas including agribusiness, food processing, manufacturing, technology, beauty, fashion and the creative industries.
Their training covered design thinking, value proposition development, product development, pitching, financing, pricing and access to enterprise-support services. They also undertook two days of practical industry exposure, allowing them to connect classroom knowledge with the realities of the marketplace.
UoN Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Finance, Planning and Development Prof Josiah Aduda said the university produces more than 10,000 graduates annually, making entrepreneurship an important pathway for addressing youth unemployment.
“This programme provides an economic opportunity and, with the support of ecosystem partners such as Equity, we can reduce youth unemployment, create more jobs and contribute to economic growth,” Aduda said.
The message to graduates was not simply to start businesses, but to build enterprises capable of surviving, expanding and creating opportunities for others.
Participants were encouraged to carefully manage production costs, improve efficiency, understand their customers and continuously adapt their products and services to changing market demands.
Equity Group Foundation Associate Director for Enterprise Development and Financial Inclusion Joseph Kimotho pledged continued technical support for the entrepreneurs, including connecting them with established businesses and wider industry networks.
“We are ready to link you with entrepreneurs, not only at Equity, but across the wider ecosystem,” Kimotho said.
The programme also received technical input from Kenya Industrial Estates and the Micro and Small Enterprises Authority, exposing the young entrepreneurs to business-support services available within Kenya’s wider enterprise ecosystem.
