The Kenya ICT Board last week Friday gave out Ksh104 million shillings to finalist in the Tandaa Grants contest that ran from July last year.
Twenty-one tech entrepreneurs were given a maximum of US$50,000 to spur their tech business ideas. Aspiring finalists had to submit their ideas projects, budgets in the Kenya ICT Board portal, Tandaa.
Speaking during the award ceremony, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communication and Information, Dr. Bitange Ndemo said: “We have moved from discussing infrastructure to policy, content and capacity building in the industry. We need applications that can be able to offer Kenyans solutions and help us create internal efficiencies. By so doing, we will save the economy billions of shillings.”
Individual entries were entitled to US$10,000 (Kshs 830,000), companies and registered businesses were entitled to a grant of a maximum of US$50,000 (Kshs 4.5 million). This year, the team introduced a matching grant categories for larger firms and had a tune of US$300,000 (Kshs 24 million)
Others who attended the award ceremony included Kenya ICT Board CEO, Mr Paul Kukubo, Cellulant CEO Ken Njoroge, IBM Director, in charge of Venture Capital, Wendy Lung.
This is the second edition of the Tandaa Grant. The first edition was held in 2010 where over 15 finalists were selected. Most people in the tech industry in Kenya have been critical of the grant, since the ICT board has not come out with reports of how successful the finalist from the first round faired.
Even with the uncertainty of its success, the Kenya ICT Board will launch the final and third round of the grant in three months time.
