Background

Cyber Shujaa is a Cybersecurity Training and Placement Program for Youth in Kenya that is spearheaded by Serianu limited, Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa), and funded by the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) based out of the Netherlands.

Over the last 6 years, the consortium members (Serianu limited, KBA, and USIU-Africa) have been engaged in a series of research activities to understand the gaps within ICT and Cybersecurity sector in Africa. As part of this research, the following gaps were identified:

• Placement challenge: Every year 1,000,000 youth in Kenya join the job market and Kenya’s 2019 census revealed 5,341,182 or 38.9% of 13,777,600 youth are jobless.
• Skills mismatch challenge: According to Serianu Report (2017), there is a mismatch between what the youth are taught in institutions versus what skills the industry needs leading to hiring and retention challenges.
• Gender Inclusion: According to the same report approximately only 5%-10% of the Cybersecurity professionals are women.

About the Program
The Cyber Shujaa program seeks to address the above challenges. We are focused on continuously analyzing the market and industry for ICT talent needs, designing practical curriculums for these needs, conducting vigorous training for the participants, and providing market placement and mentorship of these youth.

Through our consortium, Kenya Bankers association provides the market intelligence that informs the curriculum development, USIU-Africa designs the curriculum and ensures the youth are at the heart of the program while Serianu limited provides the technical training and immersion.

Our Success
Our pilot program started in 2016 and we have seen tremendous impact as follows: successfully trained and up-skilled over 2,000 youths across 50 institutions in Kenya and worked to ensure placement of over 200 youths both directly and indirectly through referrals.

Our 3-year goal for the Program

• Up-skill 2000 youth in cybersecurity skills (50% female)
• Improve the job decency of 1000 employed youth.
• Support 30 Cybersecurity entrepreneurs (youth).
• Develop and implement a harmonized cybersecurity employment framework linking the supply (academia) and demand (industry)
• Avail accessible opportunities for youth (more qualified youth employment in the cyber security industry)
• Enhance a more gender sensitive female mainstreaming in the cybersecurity industry.
• Increase youth access to better paying and stable jobs

Looking Ahead
We look forward to partnering with like minded institutions and individuals to place youth at the heart of the program, ensure we meet our objectives, enhance gender participation levels, and improve the overall cybersecurity industry in Kenya and the region.

Join us for the launch by registering for free through this link: https://bit.ly/CyberShujaa
When: Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Time: 8.30am to 1.00pm (East Africa Time)

Let’s keep the conversation going on Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook using the hashtag #CyberShujaa

Our Keynote Speakers:

1. Prof. Freida Brown, Vice Chancellor, United States International University - Africa.

Prof. Freida Brown is the Interim Vice Chancellor (President) and Professor of Psychology at the United States International University-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, a position she assumed on Monday, August 23, 2021, for a period of 9 months.

Professor Brown previously served as the USIU-Africa Vice Chancellor for more than two decades before retiring in 2016. During her tenure, Professor Brown oversaw the student population growth from 1,100 students to more than 6,200 and increased the number of faculty and academic programs.

Professor Brown has a doctoral degree in Developmental Psychology from Michigan State University. She has taught at several institutions including USIU-San Diego, Howard University, Washington University in St. Louis, Bowie State University and Morgan State University both in Maryland. She has written and made presentations in the areas of cross-cultural psychology, psycho-social development of children and management in higher education.

Whilst in Kenya she served on several boards including the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and Secretary to the Kenya Educational Network (KENET) Board. She was a Commissioner of the Kenyan Commission for Higher Education which is now Commission for University Education (CUE) and was a member of the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB). She is the founding Chair of the Kenya Association of Private Universities (KAPU) which is an advocacy group supporting the development of private higher education in Kenya.

In addition to enjoying her retirement in the last six years doing pottery, native landscaping, writing memoirs and reconnecting with family and old friends, Professor Brown was appointed Distinguished Alumni of Washington University in St. Louis in 2018 and, Associate Fellow (Honorary), Department of African and African American Studies in 2018-2019, at the same university.

Professor Brown is excited to return to USIU-Africa, and looks forward to providing a steady hand of support and expertise during this leadership transition period. She is gearing up to get busy to bring a combination of strategic vision and proven leadership in higher education right here at USIU-Africa.

2. Dr. Habil Olaka, EBS, CEO - Kenya Bankers Association

Dr. Olaka was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) in October 2010. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the Association, covering industry advocacy, development and sustainability. Previously he was the Director of Operations of the East African Development Bank (EADB) based in Kampala after serving as the Resident Manager in Kenya. He earlier served the bank as the Head of Risk Management and as the Chief Internal Auditor.

Before joining the Bank, he had been with Banque Indosuez (now Bank of Africa) as the Internal Auditor. He started his career at the PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nairobi in the Audit and Business Advisory Services Division. He sits on a number of boards representing the KBA. These are Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), National Research Fund (NRF), Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), and the Anti-Money Laundering Advisory Board (AMLAB) as alternate to KBA Chairman. He chairs the Public Finance Sector Board of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA). He is the National President of the Federation of Kenya Employers and the Chairman of the board of the Centre for Corporate Governance (CCG). He also sits on the board of the National Housing Corporation (NHC).

He holds a Doctor of Business Administration from USIU-Africa, a First Class Honours BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nairobi, and an MBA in Finance from the Manchester Business School in the UK His DBA dissertation was on the influence of strategic leadership on the implementation of strategy in the commercial banks in Kenya.

He is a member of the Institute of the Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and the CFA Institute. He is an alumnus of the Strathmore School of Accountancy and has a good command of the French language.

3. William Makatiani, CEO - Serianu Limited

Mr. Makatiani is the CEO of Serianu Limited, a Pan African Cyber Security consulting firm with presence in East, west and Southern Africa.

The firm provides dynamic, business focused security monitoring and analytics solutions through a combination of consulting, managed services and threat intelligence. Mr. Makatiani is currently leading a continent-wide effort to develop research based insights on the state of cyber security in Africa.
Before Serianu limited, Mr. Makatiani worked with Deloitte and Touché’ RSA security, EMC corporation and Federal Reserve Bank in Boston.

Mr. Makatiani has a strong passion for cyber security issues with an emphasis on research based consulting. He has over 15 years’ experience in the ICT industry – focusing on ICT Strategy, Analytics, Risk Quantification and Compliance. He has led numerous engagement across the world-including Kenya, United States, Israel, Ireland, Singapore, China, Egypt and India.

Media Contacts
United States International University-Africa
Paula Musuva, Lecturer, Forensic Information Technology
Phone: +254 730 116 152
Email: pmusuva@usiu.ac.ke

Kenya Bankers Association
Dr. Habil Olaka, CEO
Phone: +254 20 222 1704 /222 4014 /222 4015 /221 7757
Email: HOlaka@Kba.co.ke

Serianu Limited
Brencil Kaimba
Phone: +254 716 137 017
Email: brencil.kaimba@serianu.com