Global Minimum has launched the Innovate Kenya 2013 challenge, inviting high school students to submit tech solutions to locally pressing issues.
Young techpreneurs are asked to identify what they consider to be the most pressing local challenges and submit innovative solutions, in a bid to allow the youth of Kenya to creatively solve the problems which affect them the most.
Finalists will be given up to US$1,500 to develop and implement their solutions, while the winning teams will be given the chance to attend the Innovation Academy, held in Ghana.
“Kenya is in a completely different league… when it comes to innovative tech solutions and I’m excited to see what tech and mobile solutions that can come out of this opportunity,” said Francis Meyo, project coordinator of Innovate Kenya.
“I think there is a great untapped resource in young Kenyans who will use this as a stepping stone to start the next great Kenyan tech venture.”
The programme is the second Innovate Challenge to be launched, the first having been held in Sierra Leone, bringing fame to young engineer Kelvin Doe, whose home-built generator and FM radio transmitter prompted an invite to continue working on his innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The Innovate Kenya challenge hopes to provide similar opportunities to Kenyan prodigies while also promoting the need to address local challenges at home.
“It’s my clear impression that intelligence and ingenuity is evenly distributed around the world, but that opportunities are not,” notes Jacob Lennheden, co-founder of Global Minimum. “Through Innovate Kenya we want to address this unbalance and provide a platform that empowers Kenyan youths to address their own challenges, as opposed to relying on support from abroad.”
The deadline for applications is May 12.
