Centum firm employs 800 NYS graduates

Centum Investment Plc’s facility management arm, Tribus-TSG, has connected more than 800 National Youth Service (NYS) graduates to job opportunities in the past 18 months, helping to soften the economic blow caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tribus-TSG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Centum Investment, directly employed 215 of the youths, while 646 were connected to external employment opportunities.

The job placements are in line with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that Centum signed with NYS in 2019.

“We’re happy that, despite the Covid-19 disruption to the global economy, this program has been a resounding success in as far as creating employment for our youths is concerned, it actually provided a valuable cushion against the pandemic for the qualifying youths,” said James Nicholl, the managing director of Tribus-TSG.

Under the deal, Tribus-TSG hires a pre-agreed number of NYS graduates annually, while the NYS facilitates recruitment and selection of youths for employment and helps in processing of police clearance certificates for selected teams.

Tribus-TSG then deploys the youths to its diverse clientele base in sectors including NGOs, real estate, education, manufacturing, media and hospitality. The youths hired directly by Tribus-TSG were deployed in diverse fields including security, cleaning, manufacturing, drivers, sales and marketing, control room analysts among others.

“The opportunities created for these NYS graduates aid in achieving the country’s Big Four national economic agenda,” said the Centum chief executive, Dr James Mworia. Tribus-TSG hires the NYS graduates in broad job categories including safety and security, soft services and hard services. Soft services include hygiene technicians and consumable operators while hard services include electrical and water service workers.
Other graduates are posted in Tribus-TSG’s ICT department, catering, hospitality, entertainment and events as well as construction and agriculture.

In addition to creating job opportunities for NYS youths, Tribus also connected and impacted over 504,196 Kenyans through its Ajiry online jobs platform and its Zero Contact Distribution Program that was used to distribute foodstuffs to Covid-19 affected families.

Ajiry was established by the Centum subsidiary to bridge the country’s big unemployment gap. The Web Application is designed to provide a platform for workers and employers to connect and network effortlessly, in an environment free from third-party interference.

Training centers were opened in twelve counties to pilot the Ajiry platform, including Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Kilifi, Laikipia, Meru, Nyeri, Machakos, Nakuru, Bungoma, Kiambu and Wajir.

Trainers were sent to these counties to teach youths on the use of the platform.

“Ajiry was started as a mission to transform this country by connecting young people with job opportunities and I’m happy to note we have far exceeded our target in our first full year despite the pandemic,” said Dr Mworia.