Kenya offers Sh140m support for ICT start-ups
Business Daily By Okuttah Mark
Thursday, January 24 2013
Kenya has launched the first government supported ICT-based incubation programme worth $1.6 million (Sh140 million), with funding from the International Development Association (IDA).
The incubation programme is expected to address many of the gaps that have been identified as responsible for the high failure rate among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
This includes increasing the capabilities of the entrepreneur in terms of soft skills, technical skills and business skills, business counselling, access to affordable services and facilities,
It also seeks to enhance access to SME finance, provide better linkages with both the academic community and industry, and quicker commercialisation of innovations.
The pilot programme will be implemented by incubation centre NaiLab, and will work with at least 30 start-ups hosted there. Another 100 will be hosted virtually over a three-year-period in an effort to sustain the concept and create high impact enterprises aimed at growing Kenya’s economy and creating employment.
The programme’s main goal will be to build a support infrastructure and outreach with successes being replicated in other parts of the country.
“This initiative is a public-private-partnership that builds on existing efforts in building an ICT ecosystem to support entrepreneurs towards turning ideas into scalable businesses. Such collaborations have proved to give great results,” said Kenya ICT Board CEO, Paul Kukubo.
The incubation facility will have a mix of entrepreneurs in the concept, early and mature stages. The companies to be considered will be less than five-years old, offer ICT-oriented products and their offerings should have an impact on Kenya’s social-economic environment.
“ We will be able to reach out to other parts of the country, all grass root problems cannot be solved using ICT, but innovation includes creating new more effective processes and we hope to play our role in that,” said Sam Gichuru, the NaiLab, CEO.
The pilot project will also see Kenya ICT Board and Nailab establish collaborative relationship with relevant organisations and institutions to drive the ICT agenda in the country.
