CRTW 2026 Edition · Kakuma & Kalobeyei
#GROW DIGITAL
The Kakuma & Kalobeyei Enterprise Upgrade. Connecting refugee digital talent with local businesses to drive growth, visibility, and sales.
50 shop slots fully sponsored by Shopeak · Dedicated on-site refugee talent pairing
Hear from the talent
“There are a lot of youths who have skills but they don't have a platform...”
Ding Atem — Graphic Designer, Kakuma 1
Powered by a coalition of global and local innovators
CRTW 2026 Rollout
Digitize Your Shop.
Amplify Your Reach.
A comprehensive commerce engine built specifically for Kakuma and Kalobeyei micro-enterprises. Paired directly with certified local refugee digital specialists for zero-friction adoption.
Smart POS Checkouts.
Ditch the paper notebook.
Kakuma and Kalobeyei retail merchants lose significant revenue every month to lost ledgers, unrecorded credit, and calculation disputes. The CRTW Smart POS digitizes every cash and mobile money checkout in seconds, keeping every transaction reconciled and audit-ready.
Offline-First
Continues recording checkouts and debts without internet, syncing automatically once camp connectivity returns.
Credit Ledger
Assigns customer credit with balance limits and instant SMS confirmations to eliminate disputes.
Multi-Payment
Seamlessly accepts M-Pesa till payments, cash in drawer, and split payments with instant balancing.
WhatsApp & Online Store.
Sell beyond the camp borders.
Local businesses have customers across Kakuma 1–4, Kalobeyei settlement, and surrounding communities who cannot walk across the camp in extreme heat. The CRTW digital storefront allows merchants to publish an interactive product catalog that customers can browse and order from without downloading any apps.
1-Click WhatsApp
Customers browse items, build a shopping cart, and send the complete order directly into the shop's WhatsApp chat.
Live Catalog Sync
Update a price or product photo once on mobile—it immediately synchronizes across WhatsApp, web, and social links.
0% Commission
All customer funds route directly to the merchant's registered M-Pesa till with zero middleman deductions.
Inventory & Analytics.
Real-time margins at a glance.
Eliminate guesswork from your retail operations. View exact daily gross profit margins, identify fast-moving goods, and receive proactive restocking warnings before your most profitable inventory runs dry.
Stock Warnings
Early notifications before fast-moving staples drop below safe thresholds, preventing lost retail sales.
Net Profit Tracking
Automatic cost-of-goods calculations revealing exact daily take-home earnings after supplier purchase costs.
Shift Reconciliation
Reconcile physical cash drawer totals against M-Pesa receipts in one tap at daily closing time.
From onboarding to independence in 60 days.
Hardware alone doesn't build a digital economy. Every business enrolled in the CRTW 2026 rollout receives dedicated, on-site support from certified local refugee digital talent.
Store Audit & Hardware (Days 1–14)
Physical inventory indexing, barcode generation, deployment of offline-ready POS tablets, and shop till integration.
Refugee Talent Pairing (Days 15–45)
A certified refugee digital specialist is assigned to your shop daily to photograph stock, launch your WhatsApp store, and train staff.
Autonomy & Scale (Days 46–60)
Merchant operates fully independently with certified digital credentials, ongoing technical hotline, and verifiable transaction records.
KES 5,700,000 Technology Sponsorship by Shopeak
To eliminate adoption friction for refugee and host community merchants, Shopeak is funding 50 businesses with a full 12-month commercial software and technical deployment package valued at KES 9,500/month (KES 114,000 annually per business) at zero cost to the merchant.
Included in the 12-Month Merchant Package
Shopeak Smart POS License
Offline-first checkout terminal, digital receipts, customer credit debt ledger, and automatic daily sales reconciliation.
WhatsApp & Online Catalog
Interactive digital storefront allowing camp and host-community customers to browse live inventory and place orders via WhatsApp.
ITC-Funded Youth Staffing
A certified refugee youth digital specialist, fully funded by the International Trade Centre (ITC), deployed on-site for 2 months to digitize inventory and train merchant staff.
Enroll your shop in the 60-Day Rollout.
50 cohort spaces. Free 12-month commercial software license and on-site refugee talent pairing for qualified enterprises in Kakuma and Kalobeyei.
Built on Proven Success. Talent Has No Borders.
Results from the August 2025 Kakuma Hackathon organized by Opengates, ITC, and SIR, funded by WUSC.
Enrolled & trained
7 Developers, 1 Marketer
Commercial demand
Community stakeholders
Top performing talent
Refugee Talent Profiles: The August 2025 Cohort
“Designing brand identities for local clients proved that freelancing requires not just creative skill, but the courage to put yourself forward.”
“Building web platforms despite limited bandwidth and power shortages taught us to engineer efficiently and deliver on time.”
“Opengates helps youth get a real platform to showcase their skills, earn an income, and be recognized as working professionals.”
Are you a refugee developer, designer, or marketer?
Apply to join the next CRTW Hackathon cohort in Kakuma & Kalobeyei. Build real digital solutions for verified MSMEs, win hardware, and get placed in paid technology roles.