Creative economy gets major boost as MKU launches Talent Academy 

The local film, music, drama and arts sector has received a major boost following the opening of a talent academy by the Mount Kenya University (MKU).

The programme dubbed Cape Media Talent Academy targets students in universities and beneficiaries will acquire professional hands-on training, as well as employment opportunities, among other key incentives.

According to an agreement between MKU and Cape Media Ltd, the university will provide the academy with creative content as developed by the students. This will allow the talented students to be engaged by the academy in various and different ways, hence leading to job creation.

MKU Vice Chancellor Prof Deogratius Jaganyi urged MKU students take advantage of this opportunity and congratulated Cape Media Limited for the innovative undertaking.

“Moreover, the student artists who are going to participate in the content creating will get certificates which will give them an edge within the job market,” noted the VC.

Launching the Cape Media Talent Academy at the institution’s Thika campus, the Kenya Film Classification Board Acting Chief Executive Officer, CPA Paskal Opiyo, congratulated Cape Media and MKU for initiating the Talent Academy which aims to harness, cultivate, nurture, showcase and monetize the talents of young Kenyans through training.

“I applaud this initiative, for it is no doubt key to addressing the mismatch of skills that has been a hindrance for young people pursuing careers in the Creative Economy,” he said.

He said the creative economy, comprising film, advertising, broadcast and visual arts, ranks among the world’s most rapidly growing sectors, contributing three per cent to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“According to statistics published by UNESCO in 2023, Statistics further show that the creative economy has created more than 30 million jobs for workers aged 18-25 more than any other field of employment across the world,” he said.

Opiyo said in Kenya, a 2019 Economic Survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicates that the Kenyan film and broadcast industry directly employed 129,824 people in 2019, or about 4.5 percent of the country’s total employed workforce.

In the same period, it is estimated that the Kenyan film and audiovisual sectors contributed Ksh 15 billion to the country’s GDP.

A report published by PWC Africa titled: Africa and Entertainment Outlook 2023-2026, projects that Kenya’s broadcast and entertainment industry will improve in the next three years with an estimated monetary value of 900 million USD by 2026.

“It is in the above context that the Government is convinced that the Creative Economy has the potential to transform Kenya’s fortunes and improve the livelihoods of our youth through job creation and income generation,” the accountant said.

Opiyo said the objectives of the Talent Academy resonate with the BETA and the Talanta Hela Initiative that is being championed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, the Creative Economy, and Sports where KFCB is domiciled.

“No doubt that this program has the potential to create job opportunities, especially in this era, when the white-collar job space is shrinking alarmingly. Indeed, this is an opportunity that should be embraced by both the public and private stakeholders to empower the young generation,” he said.

“Your role in creating job opportunities for young people, as well as promoting the consumption of local content is laudable and aligns well with the Government’s Fifth Pillar of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) and the Talanta Hela Initiative,” he added.

Opiyo pointed out that  the reason behind examining and classifying film and broadcast content is to mainly to protect children/minors from exposure to inappropriate content as well as to ensure that content conforms to Kenyan culture and national values.

“It is important to note that protecting children from exposure to inappropriate content is a collective responsibility. It is within this context that we urge local broadcasters to take advantage of the expanded airwaves to produce more local content and ensure that the same is examined by the KFCB for age appropriateness,” he cautioned.

Opiyo said the expansion of the internet spectrum has made it easier for content creators to produce, distribute, broadcast, and exhibit their audio-visual content while monetizing the same through various technological platforms.

“The expanded airwaves also provide a platform for the exhibition of more locally produced content. To this end, I encourage broadcasters to exhibit more local content to meet the current demand,” he said.

Welcoming invited guests to MKU, Vice Chancellor Prof Deogratius Jaganyi said data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics as well as from many other organizations in Kenya and beyond point out towards the huge numbers of unemployed youths in Kenya, Africa and in many developing countries.

The VC said an estimated 35 per cent of youth aged between 18 and 35 years are currently either underemployed or unemployed.  In 2023, a record of 23,044 people, most of them among the youth applied for some 293 vacant positions advertised by the Public Service Board in Bomet County.

MKU Pro-chancellor, Dr Vincent Gaitho said the government of Kenya’s commitment to promote creative economy was demonstrated in 2023’s establishment of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports, which has two State Departments namely; State Department for Youth Affairs and Creative Economy and State Department for Sports.

He  said this is a broad and wide variety of creative products and services such as art, fashion, music, film, apps, crafts, and many others contributing to a huge section of the GDP despite the challenges of thefts in copyrights.

Dr Gaitho noted that the CBC as introduced in Kenya provides the Kenyan child with an option of academic engagement in creative arts as an option of career engagement.

Present at the launch was Mr Mwenda Njoka, Group Managing Director, Cape Media, representatives of other government agencies and representatives of the Private sector.