A driver by occupation, Juma was employed by Antoinette the owner of a small boutique in Nairobi. He has always had a good relationship with his boss who also happens to be his aunt, but recently he can see that she is not as happy with him as she was before.
Everyone in the boutique, including Juma knows the reason for this. It is because he can no longer drive and it is now becoming a drain on Antoinette to keep paying his salary as well as his medical bills.
As an employee of a micro or small enterprise, Juma is hardly any different from what other employees in such businesses face. It came to pass that Juma lost his job at the end of August. Antoinette explained that she needed a driver and as he was unable to handle a car for the next few months, she had to hire someone else.
Decent work
Job creation seems to be the buzz word going around these days. Even the newly inaugurated second National Economic and Social Council was directed by President Kibaki to address youth unemployment. There are approximately 3 million unemployed youths, but are they really any worse off than our recently unemployed friend Juma?
This week marked the commemoration of the World Day for Decent Work
Not just any jobs, but decent jobs.
To most people around the world, lack of decent work means poverty. A 2007 UNDP on employment in Kenya (Pollin et. al) found that the earnings received by the majority of Kenyan working people placed them close to the official food consumption poverty line. In their survey on non-agricultural enterprises, monthly earnings in 2007 for employees was Kshs. 2,370 for all firms, Kshs. 2,200 for informal and 6,000 for formal sector enterprises. The informal sector salary is well below the national minimum wage level.
In the same year, about 475,000 jobs were created in the informal sector whilst formal sector jobs went down 50,000 positions. This is why the push for entrepreneurship development has become even more vigorous. The government understands that entrepreneurs are the drivers of economic prosperity and empowering them translates into jobs.
The 475,000 jobs created last year is no mean feat, but can they really be described as jobs? With the majority of the positions being low paying, with low job security, working within poor workplace conditions. Even the unions do not have much clout in these small enterprises so the workers have virtually no social protection or recourse in the event of job dismissal.
One cannot blame these small businesses or their owners for that matter. They are also struggling and face challenges on a daily basis. This mainly results from sub-optimal capitalization, shortage of entrepreneurial skills, weak market linkages and lack of business development services and associative networks. The overall result is an extremely high rate of enterprise death.
So Juma is without a job, all because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he has lost his livelihood. And you really can’t blame Antoinette either, she has a business to run.
Decent Job Creation
Just creating jobs is not enough. There are various reforms that will ensure that enterprises are able to offer rewarding job placements. These are just a few:
- Ensuring greater access to financial resources especially for institutionalization and expansion.
- Ensuring that an enabling environment for business is in place.
- Promoting entrepreneurship development by ensuring that the three keys for entrepreneurship supply of entrepreneurial spirit, human and venture capital are abundantly in place.
- Providing technical assistance and business development services to MSMEs;
In short, first ensure that the entrepreneur can pay a decent wage, then act on job creation.
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