Professionally, Waithera Gaitho focuses on youth and women enterprise development-she is an enterprise evangelist. For eight (8) years Waithera has been privileged to nurture the next generation of Africa’s young female and male entrepreneurs and business leaders (18-40 years), as the Founder and Executive Director of Alternatives Africa (Alternatives).
Together with a passionate team, she has established a one-stop shop for youth-owned micro and small enterprises that provides an affordable (Business Support) ecosystem. These include a young entrepreneurs’ association, a national youth Sacco, the AgroHub and a nationally renowned youth policy advocacy platform with a present focus on Kenya but an African vision at large.
As the team leader of the Alternatives AgroHub, she has successfully spearheaded various agro events, projects and evidence based research on young entrepreneurs in the agro-sector including hosting the first ever bilateral 3D Virtual Agro and Food Processing Expo that brought together 600 participants from Kenya, India and around the globe.
As a youth enterprise public/private sector liaison, she has served and continues to serve in various Leadership and Board positions. Presently, she sits on the Governing Councils of the Agricultural Sector Network (ASNET) as well as the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) where she serves as the Vice-Chairperson of the Gender and Youth Sector Board and also co-chairs the ASNET Youth Forum.
She has over seventeen (17) years of progressive professional experience gained from working with the United Nations (9 years), the Private Sector (8 years), Government and Civil Society. Waithera holds a B.A in International Relations and an M.A in International Studies from the United States International University (USIU)- Africa and The University of Nairobi (UON) respectively.
At Alternatives, the mission is to accelerate youth-owned enterprises by providing affordable financial and nonfinancial business training, development/advisory services and a support system up until forty (40) years of age. Our goal is to increase their productivity and profitability while building globally competitive African brands, towards youth employment creation and enterprise development as well as the realization of National, Regional and Global Development Agendas.
Waithera believes that this is the generation that will socio-economically liberate our Country and Continent from the shackles of poverty and dependency. It is this undying passion for the young entrepreneur and enduring faith in the overdue prosperity of our Country and Continent that she has been featured in various entrepreneurship and development conversations, digital platforms and media houses internationally, regionally and locally.