Government offers money to developers, TANDAA initiative.

21st July 2011 – The Ministry of Information and Communication has made an official call for proposals to all interested parties’ participation in this year’s award of grants.

Deadline: July 21- Monday up till August 22, 2011 (Midnight).

The grant amount: $ 10,000 per individuals; $ 50,000 per company; $ 150,000 matching grant for established companies.

Number of grants to be awarded in 2011: at least 30.

Eligibility: Kenyan citizen, companies registered in Kenya.

Categories: Private Sector Innovation, Government Data Applications

The Ministry of Information and Communications, through the Kenya ICT Board is now accepting proposals for the Tandaa Digital Content Grant. The grant is offered to Kenyan citizens and companies registered in Kenya for the development of innovative web or mobile phone applications. Grants of up to $ 50,000 for companies and $ 10,000 for individuals and teams will be offered through the program.

The objective of the grant is to stimulate ICT innovation and creativity while promoting economic growth in the sector. For many companies that develop web and mobile solutions, access to funding to grow their company is a huge challenge. By supporting entrepreneurs with the funds they need to successfully take their products to market, the grant hopes to grow the number of relevant and local web and  mobile applications available to Kenyans.

The Kenya ICT Board awarded fifteen grants in 2010 and hopes to award at least 30 grants in 2011. The grant is available to individuals and companies in any sector and the Kenya ICT Board encourages any individual or company with ideas for web or mobile applications to apply.

The Tandaa Digital Content Grant is divided into two categories: Government Open Data and Private Sector Innovation.

In the Private Sector category, the Kenya ICT Board will select the most innovative proposals that demonstrate long term business viability. Proposal in this category must respond to a demonstrated market need and have a positive impact on the community it seeks to serve.

In 2010, the Kenya ICT Board awarded seven grants in this category including a diary farmer payment application and a social media marketing product.

On July 8, the Government of Kenya made 290 datasets publicly available and accessible through an Open Data portal. Now, the Kenya ICT Board will support entrepreneurs to develop web and mobile applications that utilize the data to provide services or products for citizens.

Eduweb, an online school portal that use data from the Ministry of Education to provide a service for parents selecting schools for their children, was among seven grants awarded in 2010.

Kenyan citizens above 18 are eligible to apply for the grant. Companies officially registered in Kenya are eligible to apply for the grant.

Matching grant for established companies – A new feature of the second round of the Tandaa Digital Content Grant offers established companies an opportunity to participate in the program. Companies founded at least 10 year ago with  over 40 members of staff are invited to summit their proposals for a web or mobile application. The companies must match the grant in full. This categories allows otherwise profitable ICT companies to develop innovative projects within a short period of time.

Another new feature of the Tandaa Digital Content Grant is a training component designed into the proposal process. Over 2,000 people participated in the first round of the Digital Content Grant. However, more than half of the applicants struggled with the business plan sections of the proposal. As such, the Kenya ICT Board will offer business plan training to the top 150 applicants. The training will equip the most innovative applicants with the tools to help them secure funding and grow the business–regardless of wether they are awarded the grant.

There will also be a series of workshops in form of Grants pre-application workshops offer training of prospective applicants for the grants.