The Youth Enterprise Development Fund and Chandaria Foundation have joined Kenyatta University to set up a business incubator on its campus in the outskirts of Nairobi, to help students develop their ideas into commercial products.

The Chandaria Business Innovation and Incubation Centre (Chandaria-BIIC), is the first of its type in East Africa and, initially, will promote the projects of at least 50 students a year.

The centre, which is also supported by grants and business partners, will foster regular interaction between the students, a team of experts and mentors from Kenyatta University and leading industrialists in East Africa, who will chart out commercialization of the products.

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund has committed Kshs. 4.6 million to the project to support students once their ideas have emerged from the incubation process.

"The establishment of the centre is based on a private-public partnership to produce market-ready graduates who are job creators rather than job seekers," said Olive Mugenda, vice-chancellor of Kenyatta University, at the launch.

She noted that the centre's model is based on that of leading universities such as Harvard, which promote knowledge transfer between academia and industry, including intellectual property, expertise, learning and skills.

Speaking during the launch, Youth Fund board chairman James Singh promised that the Fund will support the initiative and added that the Fund is indeed seeking partners for similar initiatives. He reiterated that youth issues must be included in the performance contracts of government ministries and departments.

Youth Fund CEO Mwatata Mwangala noted that one of the biggest challenges facing young entrepreneurs today is the inaccessibility to decent trading space due to the costs associated with it. This explains why many budding entrepreneurs operate their businesses at home, which is away from the market, and why many beginners start in the streets, as hawkers.

The centre already has nine projects in the pipeline, such as an online supermarket, recycling of plastic waste and an intruder alert system, all developed by students at the university.

The centre's director, Mwangi Peter Wanderi, said: "Chandaria-BIIC is expected to be a significant vehicle towards Kenya's socio-economic transformation through creation of employment and wealth".

The Chandaria Foundation has contributed 25 million Kenyan shillings to establish the centre, a sum matched by the university.

Among the distinguished mentors is Mr. Gor Semelang’o, a director with the Youth Fund. Others are Mr. Manu Chandaria, Mr. S.K. Macharia of Royal Media Services, Mr. Chris Kirubi, Ms Eva Muraya  and Ms Evelyn Mungai.