Kenya Vision 2030 Innovation Award

Kuza Biashara wins Kenya’s Vision 2030 Innovation Award

Author: Rachel Wariko (Kuza Biashara)

Sriram Bharatam & Juliet Gateri receiving the Prestigious Vision 2030 Innovation Award 

The Connected Kenya summit came to an exciting end on April 5, as Kuza Biashara emerged top to clinch one of the Nation’s top innovation awards. The Vision 2030 ICT innovation award is part of the Connected Kenya Summit that took place from the April 2-5, 2012. The purpose of these awards, started in 2011, is to “Recognize and Celebrate Kenyans who have developed ICT solutions that drive economic growth and social development as outlined in Kenya’s Vision 2030“.The innovation awards were the creation of the Kenya ICT Board and the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat. All applicants for the awards were required to be registered as a business in Kenya and have had their product in the Kenyan market for at least six months. The applications were then reviewed by a team of independent judges representing the ICT private sector, academia, public sector and civil society. Over 400 applications for different categories from all over the country. Kuza Biashara won the award as the Best Innovation in the Education and Training sector, which was the most hotly contested category. Sriram Bharatam, Founder and Chief Mentor of Kuza Biashara was on hand to accept the award along with Juliet Gateri, Operations Head of Kuza Biashara. Other winners were Green Dreams Tech for their product iCow in the Agriculture sector; Digital Divide Data Kenya, in the Business Process Outsourcing sector; Digital Horizons, in the Financial services sector; Michezo Afrika in the Gender, Youth and Vulnerable groups sector; Social Equity and Poverty Reduction went to ALIN and Compulynx while MamaMikes.com won in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector.
“Encouraging local innovation is critical for Kenya to achieve Vision 2030. There are a lot of young people who come up with brilliant innovations but it goes to waste if the ideas are not monetized. Vision 2030 hopes to help market and communicate these innovations,” said Mugo Kibati, Director General, Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat.
Speaking on this occasion, Sriram Bharatam (Sri) said, “This recognition is a testimony that we are in the right direction and is a great motivator to the 50+ team members of Kuza Biashara across 20 locations in Kenya, to now scale this idea and reach out to transform as many Kenyan small business owners as possible.”