The County Government of Laikipia is supporting over 1600 owners of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by providing free working spaces and helping them come up with business plans. Through the Laikipia Innovation and Enterprise Development Program, the County has upgraded 322 working spaces and provided a decent trading environment. Traders in the newly constructed work spaces are only expected to pay KSh 11,000 each year as part of the license fee. The County Government of Laikipia in partnership with the Micro and Small Enterprises Authority (MSEA) has supported manufacturing factories in Nyahururu and Ol Jabet towns by giving them necessary equipment like lathe machines for metal fabrication businesses.
The County has supported business people with free consultations on how to develop business plans. Since 2017 to date, the County government has created 22,137 job opportunities for business people and developed 264 business plans. This strategy has helped to guide small firms who initially ran their businesses without a strategy, leading to poor trading performance, on how best to keep records of transactions in an enterprise. County officials organize regular meetings with young people interested in starting businesses to motivate and understand their ideas better for developing business plans. The Kenya Bureau of Standards has certified 156 made-in-Laikipia products to be fit for sale in Kenya while over 720 other products manufactured locally penetrate both local and international markets.
An example of the newly upgraded work spaces in Laikipia County