KCB Foundation Executive Director Jane Mwangi (far right) and PZ Cussons East Africa Managing Director Sekar Ramamoorthy (far left) during the launch of a partnership to support hair care practitioners in Nairobi, 19 June 2018.

By Jerry Abuga

KCB Foundation and PZ Cussons has put together a map of beauty training colleges across the country and will initially take a cohort of 100 hair care practitioners for an elaborate series expected to last for six months.

KCB Foundation has teamed up with PZ Cussons East Africa, a premier personal care products manufacturer in Kenya, to train and equip 1,000 salon professionals in the next five years. The initiative is meant to help them establish sustainable enterprises in the beauty industry.

Under the partnership, beneficiaries who have successfully completed their training under KCB Foundation 2jiajiari programme’s beauty and personal care sub-sector will be taken through a 6- month on-the-job training programme in beauty, selling skills and entrepreneurship, under PZ Cussons’ flagship Venus Beauty Brand Programme.

At the onset, 100 trainees will undergo intensive training with experts on modern beauty skill, business development, customer management and deeper understanding of entrepreneurship.

KCB Foundation Executive Director Ms Jane Mwangi said the Foundation was a strong supporter of job creation and is involved deeply in programmes designed to engage young people in enterprise development through its 2jiajiri programme.

“This is a relevant thematic area for us and we are excited to partner with PZ Cussons to champion and offer more young people an opportunity to get into and grow in the hair care business,” she said during the launch in Nairobi on 19 June.

PZ Cussons East Africa Managing Director Sekar Ramamoorthy said the drive to train and equip the practitioners arose from the realisation that there was a critical need for the firm to get involved in building the requisite capacity for modern hair dressers across the country.

“As consumers’ hair management needs continue to evolve, we have chosen to partner with industry practitioners to build hairdresser’s skill sets, in the process exposing them to new solutions and industry experts who will equip them with the necessary exposure and hands-on skills. At the same time it will ensure that they are able to set up and run successful outfits to deliver modern hair dressing services as they have learned,” said Ramamoorthy.  The programme, is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.

Hair, he noted, is a primary part of the human personality and emerging trends will require robust collaboration between personal care brands and industry practitioners to deliver great experiences and services.  The Venus Program, which is in line with PZ Cussons global Good for Business (G4B) pillar that recognizes business can be a force for positive change, is timely as it supports the Kenya government’s drive to create and support young people to set up sustainable small scale business enterprises.

Ramamoorthy posited that by forging strong links with its local communities and mutually beneficial relationships with business partners, conducting activities with integrity and responsibility, PZ Cussons’ Good for Business pillar aims at creating Sustainable Value for all stakeholders, today and in future.

“This is a great initiative that has the potential to inject an additional Ksh 1 billion annually to Kenya’s GDP,” said Ramamoorthy noting that Kenya’s hair care industry alone was worth an estimated ksh 15 billion and employs about 1 million people directly and indirectly.

KCB Foundation and PZ Cussons has put together a map of beauty training colleges across the country and will initially take a cohort of 100 hair care practitioners for an elaborate series expected to last for six months.

Ultimately, each of the more than 1,000 trainees will be able to establish their own individual salon businesses and will be guided in the process through mentorship, connection with salon networks and provided with financing for start-up capital, working capital and asset financing for their salon equipment.

So far, over 1,000 out of the over 12,000 beneficiaries of 2jiajiri programme have been sponsored for the beauty and personal care programme across the country. KCB Foundation has also partnered with leading beauty colleges and salons in the country to empower and equip unemployed and out-of-school youth to grow micro enterprises in the beauty industry by providing them with technical skills and access to seed capital.