CIO East Africa - Business Technology Leadership

Kenya's local software development scene got a rocket-boost as the Kenya ICT Board announced some of the winners of the first round of the Tandaa Digital Content and Local Software grants. With a US $ 4 million backing from the World Bank,said to be the largest in Africa, the grants are meant to aid local developers in the generation of software solutions targeting local situations in Kenya. Kaburo Kobia, Project Manager for Local Digital Content at the Kenya ICT Board says most local developers find it a challenge to get funding from financial institutions or individuals. The fund aims to help developers access funds while at the same time showcases to the community and local financial institutions the viability of software projects.

Awards were given to the top 7 out of 166 entries in the government information  portal, firms category. The category together with the individuals category make part of the Government Information portal section whose aim is to develop solutions and products that exploit mobile and web technology in the delivery of government information or services. Other categories are the Individual and Firm categories of the Private sector content and applications section which aims at developing innovative solutions and products that exploit mobile and web technology in the delivery of information , entertainment or services. The competition was open to all content creators including software developers, films, animation, advertising , publishing , games and educational professionals. 

The first round closed on July 19th 2010 and the ICT Board would be expecting to make other similar calls for applications in the next three years , distributing US $ 2.5 million to the Government Information portal section and US $ 1.5 Million to the Private sector section.

All proposals received were reviewed by an independent consultant and a full evaluation report submitted to a grants committee made up of independent ICT experts for ratification and approval. The committee then reviewed the reports and interviewed the proposed grant recipients resulting in seven of them getting shortlisted as the best.

This included iBid labs who presented a project titled "Kenya Online Museum" that seeks to present the history of Kenya dating back to 3 billion years ago. The information will be drawn from  all local museums and will be represented in a rich audio-visual format.

Foundation Support Services FSS Ltd were also shortlisted for their 'IVR Tax Filing Solution' that seeks to assist payment of tax to the Kenya  Revenue Authority via the web and mobile payments.

Infotrack Strategic Solutions were shortlisted for a project titled 'Teachers Portal' which links teachers with their employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). The project aims at eliminating the common procedure of teachers coming to the TSC headquarters  whenever they need services from the employer.  eMazingira Software Application runs on Ushahidi  and crowd sources environmental situations including degradation and human wildlife conflict. The application is being developed by Bti Millman Company Ltd.

Also shortlisted was RiverCross technologies for EDUWEB portal which lists and presents all education institutions in the country in an interactive map. 

JBA Advertising company was shortlisted for their project titled "Lost and Found" which helps link people who have lost items with the finders of the same items. This will include National Identification Cards which are commonly misplaced in the country. 

Octopus ICT solutions emerged as the overall winners with a project titled "HIV and AIDS in the workplace eLearning Course." Octopus ICT is a developer of eLearning solutions and has tailored several courses which are available at easylearning.co.ke. The motive of the course is to educate government health workers about HIV/AIDS and reduce the stigma associated with the disease. Octopus is already working with ehealth directorate in the health services ministry  to achieve this. Dr Esther Ogala , the head of eHealth at the Ministry of Medical Services said: "I think it’s  a step ahead for us and for the medical fraternity especially in public heallth, we are going to train the health owrkers on HIV/AIDS, how to implement and embrace the policy and how we can eliminate the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS".

Also present was Information and Communications minister Samuel Poghisio and his Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo.

"We have to bring eHealth to our people here, comparing with India, that's the only way we can impact on the rural areas”, said Ndemo.

After presenting certificates to the winners, Poghisio said: “The government is paying special attention to the involvement of private sector in the process and through the ICT Board has given US $ 4 million for the devleopment of local content."

Paul Kukubo, CEO, Kenya  ICT Board also remarked that the aim of the grant was to be a stimulus that the private sector is called upon to respond.

"We have seen that Kenyans have a huge demand for local content. At the end of the day , what we want to have in the country is a genuine ecosystem where entrepreneurs come up  with an idea, people in universities and lecturers support those ideas, families and friends give the first level of support then institutions come and take over. I don't think there is any place in the world where the government can become the main source of entrepreneural funding”, said Kukubo.

Kukubo said several good projects had failed to go through because they failed to meet the requirements but encouraged them to apply in the next round.

The grant winners of the other three categories will be announced later in September 2010. Another round of applications will be announced in the coming year. 
Firms will get a maximum of US $ 50,000 while individuals will get US $10,000.