JITIHADA

Jitihada is a Brand Name for the Kenya National Business Plan Competition which will be implemented within 12months. It is a sub-component of the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) competitiveness project, a World Bank funded five year project. The MSMEs project’s primary aim is to increase productivity and employment in participating MSME in Kenya.

The contract for JITIHADA was signed between the Kenya Institute of Management led consortium and the Ministry of Industrialization on 24th February 2009 at the ministry of industrialization offices.

The program has been designed to assist current and emerging entrepreneurs to overcome constraints faced by the MSME sector. It’s also intended to create an environment that spawns creative business ideas that can be effectively implemented within the context of the global economy. As such, the mission of Jitihada is to run and manage a Business Plan Competition (BPC) whose effort is to: Promote and support entrepreneurship and the development and growth of sustainable and globally competitive MSMEs, thus creating wealth and increasing employment, incomes and economic opportunity for the people of Kenya.

The program seeks to achieve the following specific objectives:
1) Increase the growth in MSME jobs and creating wealth by:
a) Enhancing dramatically the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship particularly among the youth of Kenya;
b) Provide targeted and relevant training and tools to new entrepreneurs and existing business;
c) Providing access to markets and market information, capital, New Technologies, space and equipment.
2) Create opportunities for micro-enterprises to transform into SMEs
3) Providing Networking and linkage opportunities for existing MSMEs and emerging entrepreneurs between and among the established private sector in Kenya
4) Supporting this growth by developing a locally-owned and managed business plan competition (BPC) program that will be self sustaining through ongoing private sector support and
5) Providing information and recommendations to relevant government entities regarding key legal and regulatory constraints to launching and growing MSMEs.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTORS

A three-partner consortium has been formed to undertake the project:
1) The Kenya institute of management which is a leading partner. The institute’s key objectives are to enhance the understanding of the small-scale enterprises by teaching, training, and conducting research and evaluation and to provide entrepreneurial education to management personnel and those who would like to start small-scale enterprises. The Kenya institute of management will be working with:
2) TechnoServe/Kenya (TNS/K) and
3) The Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology/Institute for Human Resource Development (IHRD/JKUAT)

The program will be implemented in all the eight provinces thereby giving equal opportunities to majority of Kenyans to participate. The competition is designed to incorporate 5 Stages: pre-competition, stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, and stage 4; the latter being the post-competition stage.

Competition Stages
The following will be the stages:


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Pre-competition stage - Months 1 – 4 (4 months)
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Competition stage I - Months 5 – 7 (3 months)
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Competition stage 2 - Months 8 – 10 (3 months)
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Competition stage 3 - Months 11 – 12 (2 months)

The competition will run for a period of 12 months. Activities involved in the four stages are detailed below:

Pre-competition stage
This will involve setting up systems to roll out the program.
Competition Stage I

This stage will begin by launching Jitihada and then followed by calls for application from interested parties where we expect to attract approximately 1,575 entrants. After applications have been received, we shall conduct initial screening and evaluate business ideas. Finally, we shall identify eligible forty percent (i.e. 630 participants out of the initial 1575 participants) of the competition entrants.
Competition Stage II
After successful completion of stage one, we shall then conduct training sessions, seminars and workshops (to train 630 in the 8 provinces), development of business ideas by participants with help of mentors, accept and evaluate draft business plans. Then the provincial competition will kick of, Judging and awards at provincial level, and feedback to the participants. 15-20% will proceed to national level and aftercare services will be provided for selected businesses that win business development service awards at the provincial level. We shall form alumni Associations to closely network with the participants.

Eventually we shall have 630 trained and mentored in all eight Provinces. The Provincial awards will be given out and the top finalist will proceed to national level.
Competition Stage III
At this stage, we shall then offer further training and mentoring for national competition participants, assist in further development of winning business plans, then judging takes place. Finally we shall have winners at the national level who will have finalized a well refined business plans. We shall then have the award ceremony and cash prices given to these winners. To encourage interaction and enhance relations, Alumni associations will be registered and feedback encouraged from the participants.

Post-competition
In this final stage, feedback on Jitihada process from all stakeholders will take place, as well as review design, process, training curriculum and materials. We shall also implement further targeted aftercare services and conduct follow-up with participants to assess impact (business income, growth in assets, employment creation, loan application and repayment, etc). Aftercare services will involve providing linkage with financial institutions, incubation and linkage to business development services.

(Thereafter, it will be critical to have a one day workshop to review the competition.)
This will help in improvement of competition design, process, curriculum, etc.

Participants’ Contribution
To demonstrate commitment and seriousness each applicant will pay a registration/ application fee of Kshs. 500.

Curriculum and Training
The training will be delivered in two sets of 5-days residential training, the first at the province and the national one in Nairobi. Depending on the number of applicants from each province, trainings will be held in 2 cohorts located in different towns in each province.

Eligibility and Judging Criteria
The general criteria for participation in the competition include the following:


* Any resident over the age of 18 that seeks to invest in Kenya by starting a new business venture, or expanding or diversifying an already existing one
* Existing business which have less than 99 employees at the time of application
* No employees of the Jitihada consortium may participate
* The content of all submissions must be the original work of the individual submitting the idea

Judges for the competition will include: venture capitalist, private investors, bankers, established entrepreneurs, industry and technical experts. For a business plan to ultimately be a ‘winner’ there must be at least one financial institution willing to finance it. Winners are of course under no obligation to accept financing from any institution.


AWARDS

Provincial Awards

Total Number = 24 (Top 3 entrepreneurs x 8 Provinces)

Award Value (Kshs.)
First Prize 100,000
Second Prize 75,000
Third Prize 50,000
Special Awards*
Best Woman Entrepreneur 50,000
Social Entrepreneur 50,000

National Awards
Award Value (Kshs.)
First Prize 1 million
Second Prize 750,000
Third Prize 500,000
Special Awards*
Best Woman Entrepreneur 250,000
Social Entrepreneur 250,000

*Special awards are expected to be contributed by private sector sponsors.

Aftercare BDS Services
Aftercare for the BPC finalists aims to identify and remove constraints to growth. Working with Business Development Services consultants an audit of each business will be conducted to identify constraints to growth and build their capacity in; book-keeping, accounting, marketing skills, markets linkages, business planning and management skills. The business development services will include specific areas such as business growth and marketing strategy, production planning, human resource management, financial management and financial linkages. As a result, the 25 businesses are expected to increase their revenues by at least 5% above their normal revenue growth and increase employment by at least 2 people over a period of one year.
For more detail go to http://www.kim.ac.ke/news/newsarticle.asp?newsid={41481481482}