Several assertions have been leveled against the Kenya ICT Board’s Tandaa Grants mostly speculating favoritism in the selection process and a “quick death” of the funded projects.
The Kenya ICT Board stuck to its guns saying the “granting process” is above board and has been well on course since inception in 2010. The Tandaa Grants are part of a bigger grant given to the Kenya ICT Board by the World Bank.
There are three levels of winners. Companies can compete for US$50,000 in both the government and the private sectors. Individuals can also apply for a US$10,000 for the two sectors. The board introduced the matching grants level for more established companies with a grant of US$150,000.
HumanIPO asked the Kenya ICT Board whether there were any projects that failed to start. “Of the companies we awarded grants? None,” Kaburo Kobia, Project Manager and Local Digital Content at the board responded.
One project though ran into a huddle. “The KRA IVR tax-filling system,” Kaburo said.
“The team worked hard on this project, but in the end, KRA was not willing to allow the application to access its system. We tried really hard to find a work around solution by mirroring the data etc. The system was developed, but as access was not granted, we had to suspend the project and funding ceased.”
In an article appearing in the CIO website, the ICT Board had to come to its defense right after it announced the second round grantees in May.
The KICTB has however faced a lot of criticism over the selection of the second batch, with sections of industry players such as Idd Salim saying that past recipients of the grants had nothing to show other than “cars and girls”. Other issues raised include inclusion of established industry players including Virtual City which bagged a new category targeted at established firms. However, other established players such as Agosta Liko, Pesapal founder, felt that the ICT Board was leaving out established firms who also deserved the grant.
The ICT board convened a meeting that included the blogger community and applicants to the grant to clarify the issues about the Tandaa Grant.
The ICT Board is very confident on their progress. “Overall, we are pleased with the rate of success so far; given that only 1 out of 15 projects will not be completed,” Kaburo told HumanIPO.
She also clarified on the process of monitoring some of the funded projects:
1. Contract negotiation
2. Identify and cost milestones
3. Sign contract
4. Submit monthly financial report
5. Once milestone is complete, submit report for review
6. KICTB reviews milestone and report
7. Once satisfied with milestone, KICTB issues funds for next milestone
8. Deloitte carry out independent monitoring quarterly
9. Final milestone is ‘Monitoring and Evaluation’
Indeed, the Kenya ICT Board has tried to put up the progress of each project on its website.
Kaburo gave examples of sites that are working. These include the Enzi Museum project, Ask-a-Doc and Teachers Service Commission portal. According to a released report, five of the projects are completed, two are still being monitored and evaluated, six of them are in application development, one is still on the system development, interfacing and testing section while the tax filling has been canceled.
