Blaze Be Your Own Boss Mentorship Summit Heads to Kisumu

Safaricom (NSE: SCOM), through its youth network BLAZE, will this Friday, 24th August take the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) youth mentorship summit to the ASK Showground in Kisumu County.

This will be the second of three summits planned this year, with the first one having been held in Mombasa last month, attended by over 8,000 youth, and the final one planned for Machakos County in September.

The mentorship summits focus on empowering Kenyan youth to achieve success by providing access to valuable information, skills and networking opportunities in a variety of fields including creative arts (fashion, photography, graffiti, music, film and television), agriculture, retail and manufacturing.

Mentors who will grace the summit on Friday include; John Kaveke and David Avido (fashion designers), Fena Gitu (singer/songwriter), Joy Kendi (fashion blogger), Enos Olik (video director), Catherine Kamau (actress), Eric Kinoti (Founder and CEO, Shade Systems), Caleb Karuga (farmer and agribusiness consultant) and Catherine Mahugu (Founder, Soko, a luxury fashion brand).

“Our main focus is to empower and equip the young people with relevant skills and opportunities to pursue their dreams and turn their passions into viable careers. Through the mentorship summits, we are offering training, networking and mentorship opportunities for the economic empowerment of the youth, especially those seeking guidance on how to succeed in careers considered to be unconventional,” said Charles Wanjohi, Interim Director of Consumer Business – Safaricom. During the summit BLAZE subscribers will get a chance to sign up for a three-day creation camp, which will be held at the same venue from 29th – 31st August.

The creation camp targets 350 BLAZE subscribers with a unique opportunity to engage with mentors drawn from various fields, who will share their experiences and knowledge with the aim of inspiring the youth to succeed in their chosen careers. In line with its youth empowerment focus, BLAZE has partnered with Huawei, Centonomy, design-thinking firm Bluesky Innovations, eMobilis Mobile Technology Institute and Generation Kenya – an education to employment programme launched by McKinsey & Company and supported by USAID and the Safaricom Foundation, among others – to help young Kenyans to secure entry-level jobs in sectors such as finance, retail, hospitality, technology and manufacturing.

The BLAZE BYOB summits and creation camps will culminate in the 3rd season of the BYOB TV show, in which 12 entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 26 years old will compete for a chance to win a grand prize of KES 5 million in a reality TV-style competition.

The first season of the TV show saw 19-year-old fashion designer Valentine Nekesa win the grand prize, while Brian Rono, a potato farmer from Eldoret, emerged the last boss standing in the second season.

BLAZE is a sub-brand of Safaricom and was launched in 2016 to give youth aged 26 years and below products, services and benefits tailored specifically to meet their everyday needs. A first of its kind platform in Kenya, East and Central Africa, BLAZE was founded on what Kenyan youth say is most important to them: freedom, empowerment and success.

Safaricom (NSE: SCOM), through its youth network BLAZE, will this Friday, 24th August take the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) youth mentorship summit to the ASK Showground in Kisumu County.

This will be the second of three summits planned this year, with the first one having been held in Mombasa last month, attended by over 8,000 youth, and the final one planned for Machakos County in September.

The mentorship summits focus on empowering Kenyan youth to achieve success by providing access to valuable information, skills and networking opportunities in a variety of fields including creative arts (fashion, photography, graffiti, music, film and television), agriculture, retail and manufacturing.

Mentors who will grace the summit on Friday include; John Kaveke and David Avido (fashion designers), Fena Gitu (singer/songwriter), Joy Kendi (fashion blogger), Enos Olik (video director), Catherine Kamau (actress), Eric Kinoti (Founder and CEO, Shade Systems), Caleb Karuga (farmer and agribusiness consultant) and Catherine Mahugu (Founder, Soko, a luxury fashion brand).

“Our main focus is to empower and equip the young people with relevant skills and opportunities to pursue their dreams and turn their passions into viable careers. Through the mentorship summits, we are offering training, networking and mentorship opportunities for the economic empowerment of the youth, especially those seeking guidance on how to succeed in careers considered to be unconventional,” said Charles Wanjohi, Interim Director of Consumer Business – Safaricom. During the summit BLAZE subscribers will get a chance to sign up for a three-day creation camp, which will be held at the same venue from 29th – 31st August.

The creation camp targets 350 BLAZE subscribers with a unique opportunity to engage with mentors drawn from various fields, who will share their experiences and knowledge with the aim of inspiring the youth to succeed in their chosen careers. In line with its youth empowerment focus, BLAZE has partnered with Huawei, Centonomy, design-thinking firm Bluesky Innovations, eMobilis Mobile Technology Institute and Generation Kenya – an education to employment programme launched by McKinsey & Company and supported by USAID and the Safaricom Foundation, among others – to help young Kenyans to secure entry-level jobs in sectors such as finance, retail, hospitality, technology and manufacturing.

The BLAZE BYOB summits and creation camps will culminate in the 3rd season of the BYOB TV show, in which 12 entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 26 years old will compete for a chance to win a grand prize of KES 5 million in a reality TV-style competition.

The first season of the TV show saw 19-year-old fashion designer Valentine Nekesa win the grand prize, while Brian Rono, a potato farmer from Eldoret, emerged the last boss standing in the second season.

BLAZE is a sub-brand of Safaricom and was launched in 2016 to give youth aged 26 years and below products, services and benefits tailored specifically to meet their everyday needs. A first of its kind platform in Kenya, East and Central Africa, BLAZE was founded on what Kenyan youth say is most important to them: freedom, empowerment and success.