The Kenya ICT Board is pleased to announce a US$ 4 Million grant for digital content and software applications. The grant will reward innovative projects that boost the use of internet and mobile technology. With over 3 million data enabled phone in Kenya and 4 million intern users, mobile and internet technology offer huge opportunities for effective delivery of information and services.

Many talented Kenyans have developed mobile and web products that deliver services and information to Kenyans across the country--but too many of these products do not successfully reach the market due to lack of funding.

Now, the Kenya ICT Board hopes to support talented Kenyans through the Digital Content and Software Applications Grant. The best proposals submitted will receive seed money of US$ 50,000 for firms and US$ 10,000 for individuals.
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The board is setting up an umbrella institution for industry collaboration on BPO talent development and skills excellence.
For co-development of the COE, companies may choose to participate individually or as a consortium to leverage differing strengths (e.g. training companies may partner with leading global BPO providers).
Participating companies will contribute by undertaking the following activities (i) Training of Trainers, (ii) Content, (iii) Certification.
A business plan is being developed and a framework to guide the running of the COE is also expected in May.

Lizzie Chongoti

The Kenya ICT Board hosted the second Tandaa Symposium on May 6 at the Kenya National Museum. The Tandaa Symposium is a series of bi-monthly events sponsored by Google that seek to explore different aspects of local digital content. The first Symposium, held at the iHub in March 2010, focused on the history of online business in Kenya and opportunities for monetizing online initiatives. The second Symposium focused on film and animation.

Even before fiber optic cables landed in Kenya, YouTube was already one of the top most visited sites in Kenya. In April, Kenya witnesses it's first online viral video as tens of thousands of people watched and shared Just a band's video 'Ha-He' featuring the fictional character 'Makmende'. The creators of the 'Makmende' video were present at the Tandaa Symposium and spoke about how their video went viral and what it has meant for their band.   read more>>

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The One Million Computer Initiative also known as 'Wezesha' (a Swahili word that means 'to enable') is intended to increase access to the Internet and usage of computers, with all associated development impact benefits.
 
The first phase of the initiative will target approximately 16,000 university students. The initiative will provide an incentive to university students to enable them acquire a laptop computer.
 
Significant progress has been made in this initiative in the last few weeks, for example, the Kenya ICT Board is in the process of hiring a management firm to oversee the initiative and pre qualifying retailers who will supply the laptops. Briefing sessions have also been conducted with stakeholders.
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The Kenya ICT Board will finalise the commission of state-of-the-art CISCO Telepresence Video Conferencing Center at the offices, 12th floor Teleposta Towers. read more>>

Accenture on board on Government Shared Services Project Certification
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The Kenya ICT Board has awarded a contract to Accenture to develop the framework and Terms of Reference for the Government Shared Services. This framework will guide the implementation of shared services in government.
 
What is Government Shared Services?

Government Shared Services is the consolidation of administrative or support functions - such as human resources, finance, information technology and procurement - from several departments or agencies into a single, stand-alone organizational entity whose only mission is to provide services as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The objectives of the Government IT Shared Services Project are:

1.    Formalize a Government of Kenya Shared IT Services strategy and blueprint,
2.    Develop internal capacity to effectively and efficiently undertake government wide consolidation of IT,
3.    Implement pilots for the provision of a horizontal, cross departmental functional support service,
4.    Provide a high-level roadmap for transitioning identified functional areas into a shared services paradigm,
5.    Align the Shared Services strategy/blueprint and roadmap with other Government-led technology initiatives,
6.    Prepare a detailed business plan for establishing a Shared Services Center inline with global leading practices (Ireland, Gauteng SA, NYC US, UK)
7.    Facilitate the deployment of the Shared Services Center through a competitive procurement process to entrust its management to a suitable entity.