A team of Zetech University students have booked a slot for a boot camp organized by International Telecommunications Union (ITU) after their ICT innovation was crowned among top 10 entries in a continental youth ICT innovation competition.
The competition that was also financed by Huawei Technologies as Title sponsors, Intel Corporation, GSM Association and AfriLabs and African Telecommunications Union (ATU) will see the students trained by innovation-support champion AfriLabs besides showcasing their entry in a personalized virtual booth at the Global Innovation Forum.
The private institution students who were led by Samuel Kinuthia, their lecturer emerged position four in the finalist’s category.
“We are proud to reveal that our institution was selected by African Telecommunications Union to represent Kenya as a top 10 finalist in the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) challenge 2021. The challenge aimed to recognize best practices that can be replicated across the continent, to provide short and long-term sustainable solutions to the challenges facing young ICT innovators,” announced don Kinuthia.
The milestone happened weeks after the higher learning institution launched Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Hub that hopes to empower researchers, both students and members of the faculty by helping them to commercialize their findings and innovations.
The initiative will also be recognized by the ITU and ATU as an Ecosystem stakeholders Best Practice that can be scaled and amplified across Africa to foster youth resilience.
The initiative that seeks to empower students in the field of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology development acts as a business incubator and will also see provision of necessary tools, training, and mentorship enabling over 200 beneficiaries to develop their innovation and entrepreneurial skills.
In the top positions were Tunisia’s Startup Tunisia, Tanzania’s Coding Clubs, Mentorship and Incubation initiative by Apps and Girls, and Zambia’s ICT Innovation Programme by the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA).
Tunisia’s Startup Tunisia initiative which ranked top in the Challenge, took home Sh 1.1 million (USD 10,000) top prize and the title, 2021 ATU Best Ecosystem Practice Enabling Youth ICT Innovation in Africa.
Startup Tunisia offers grants and provides technical guidance to startup innovators, and has, in just 2 years, supported 550 startups as well as startup support organizations through providing a supportive policy environment, investments and capacity building.
The competition also saw Tanzania’s Coding Clubs, Mentorship and Incubation initiative by Apps and Girls, and the ICT Innovation Programme of Zambia’s ICT Authority take home Sh. 552,500 (USD 5,000) and Sh. 276,250 (USD 2,500).
The former has empowered over 34,686 girls with problem-solving and coding skills, improved their academic performance in ICT and other STEM-related subjects and led to 69 businesses being set-up.
This year’s edition of the challenge identified institutions from Africa that create an enabling environment for youth to develop ICT innovations.
Among the institutions sought to take part in the competition included policy making bodies, incubators, universities and non-profits.
Speaking at the ceremony, Huawei’s President of Carrier Business Group, Huawei Southern Africa Region, Samuel Chen, called for further investment in connectivity, power and mobile money.