ICT Board grants Sh300m to state project winners

By Fredrick Obura

iBid Labs limited is among local firms to clinch the Kenya ICT Board’s content development grant worth Sh300 million.

The company won the grant in the category of Government information portal for its innovative "Kenya Online Museum" project, an initiative to document Kenya’s history online.

Through multi-media, ibid labs will capture three million years of Kenyan history to be distributed online and accessed from mobile phones.

Inspired by over 25 museums in Kenya that host a rich history of the country, ibid started their project several years ago by researching Kenya’s history.

According to ICT Board representative Kaburu Kobia, the grant will give the company an opportunity to realise their dream of making Kenyan history accessible to all.

Local content

Ms Kobia said the successful bidders would each receive a grant amount limited to Sh4 million ($50,000) for firms and $10,000 (Sh800,000) for individuals.

Tandaa, a forum dedicated for local content was conceived with the aim of generating and distribution of locally relevant digital content. The initiative grants seed money to webprenneurs with ingenious products to develop the same.

The grant worth Sh300 million ($4 million) announced early this year was divided into four sections targeting individuals and firms with interest in building government information portal and captivating solutions for the private sector.

To quell growing anxiety and speculation among bidders in the unannounced category, Kobia said the review of remaining proposals is still ongoing and would be announced on September 28.

OTHER WINNERS

She said the board is still ploughing through each proposal and will announce the remaining three categories on September 28.

Other winners announced in the first category and their innovative projects include:

• Octopus ICT Solutions Ltd for their ‘HIV and Aids in the workplace e-Learning Course’ that will bring HIV and Aids workplace policy to every civil servant in the country.

• Infotrack Strategic Solutions Ltd for their ‘Teacher’s Portal’ that will link teachers to their employers, the Kenya Teacher’s Service Commission.

• Foundation Support Services (FSS) Ltd for their ‘IVR Tax Filing Solution’, which will offer a voice prompted option for tax filing.

• BTI Millman Company Ltd for their ‘e-Mazingira Software Application’ — an open source application that will run on Ushahidi’s crowd-sourcing platform.