MP promises to partner with government, private sector to address unemployment, poverty alleviation in the area.

Thika Town MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina sensitising members of Self-Help Groups on how best to maximise their output to benefit fully on the available opportunities.

Thika Town MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina is encouraging his constituents to embrace the concept of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) as a means of addressing unemployment, poverty alleviation and improving their socio-economic situations.

Noting that SHGs were a sure route to self-empowerment, Wainaina warned the residents that they would never achieve any meaningful social-economic change without self-initiative.

“Empowering our people to participate in local supply chains is our only hope to fight poverty. I am focused on income-generating activities and microcredit programmes that are geared towards finding and strengthening new initiatives that can empower startups and SHGs,” said the MP during the launch of the first batch of 16 SHGs from the constituency.

These groups’ first mandate will be to supply eggs to 8 public primary schools in the area that have been piloted to try out the ambitious “Egg Monday Programme” that was launched by the legislator in Kenyatta Primary School last month.

He said that, as the patron, his mandate will be to provide guidance on pertinent issues related to policy issues, strategies and resource allocation. He promised to provide proactive assistance and help them in acquiring the best possible access to skills, capital and labour so that they could achieve their potential and create development for themselves.

“By addressing policy and financial constraints that prevent groups from being integrated into available supply chains, we will be playing a vital role in maximising their growth potential and commercial competitiveness of our area since they are the main drivers of sustainable growth,” he said.

He also encouraged clustering of these groups as a way of exploiting economies of agglomeration adding that strong interrelationships and proximity-based mutual trust stimulated growth.

He promised to help create small business hubs through the creation of effective partnerships between the public and private sectors.

Lora Wandia Maina, one of the beneficiaries of the new initiative reckoned that being a member of SHGs for the last 10 years had opened doors to her financial independence.

Her group has managed to buy several plots of land in the area and were now in the process of buying a bigger parcel of land that would see each member acquire an acre of land.

She encouraged other residents to follow suit and form groups to empower each other.

Her sentiments were echoed by Paul Kogi from Ngoliba Ward who is a member of Ngoliba Smart Workers SHG. He said that the forum organised by the MP was an opener as it revealed so many opportunities that they were unaware of previously.

He said that their next mission as a group would be to start a poultry farming that will take advantage of the available unexploited market of ‘kienyeji’ meat and egg sales.