Applications have opened for the annual Kenyan Innovation Awards, which will take place at the Connected Kenya conference in March and look to reward companies and organisations using ICT in new and interesting ways.
Disrupt Africa reported last month the eighth edition of the Connected Kenya summit will take place on March 21-24 in Diani, bringing together government, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to discuss how to further grow Kenya’s ICT sector.
The event aims to identify gaps that may hinder the growth of the ICT business sector, and share knowledge, best practice and lessons learnt based on experience in implementing ICT projects.
It also features the annual Innovation Awards, with applications open from now until March 7 for companies and organisations that consider themselves to have an award-worthy product.
“We want to celebrate Kenyan companies and organizations that are using ICT in new and interesting ways,” the Kenya ICT Authority said in a press release.
“To be eligible for the award, simply tell us how your company or organisation is improving lives or driving Kenya’s economic growth through the use of technology.”
Last year, Kenyan startup Totohealth, which uses SMS technology to help reduce maternal mortality, child mortality and predict developmental disabilities in a child, was declared the overall winner of the Innovation Awards.
There were 586 applications for the awards, which were eventually narrowed down to finalists in six categories.Totohealth also won in the Healthcare Delivery category.
The Education and Training category was won by Boresha, which produces educational dgital content, while M-Changa emerged victorious in Financial Services for its SMS-based fundraising platform.
Housing and Urbanisation was won by online property listing platform Kejahunt, the IT and telecoms category by jobs platform Kuhustle, and the Local and International Trade category by M-Shamba, which connects smallholder farmers to buyers through a mobile app.
This year, applications are invited for 14 categories, namely Agriculture, Business Process Outsourcing/Off-shoring, Education and Training, Environmental Management, Financial Services, Gender, Youth and Vulnerable Groups, Healthcare Delivery, Housing and Urbanisation, Manufacturing, Social Equity and Poverty Reduction, Tourism, Water and Sanitation, Wholesale and Retail Trade, and County Government Issues.
