More than 60 percent of the companies that entered into the CIO100 IT excellence awards in East Africa have been shortlisted with Kenya being ahead of the pack.
150 out of 384 companies were shortlisted successfully ahead of the major IT symposium and Awards that will be held in Naivasha from November 21, 2019.
This award covers six East African countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia.
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“This year for the first time, we saw companies from Ethiopia making submissions to be considered for the award,” said Andrew Karanja, Director, CIO East Africa.
The CIO100 Awards recognizes companies that have used IT in the most innovative way to solve business challenges and achieve organizational goals. The awards have been running for the last nine years.
The banking and financial services sector makes up almost 40 percent of the submissions including from both Commercial Bank of Africa and NIC Bank, now rebranded NCBA after the merger, Equity Bank, DTB Bank, Standbic Uganda, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, I&M Bank, Sidian Bank and SMB Bank among others.
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Insurance and the savings and credit sectors are also represented, with entries from UAP Old Mutual, the Madison Group, AAR Insurance, Bluewave Insurance, Mwalimu Sacco, Bandari Sacco, Chai Sacco and Boresha Sacco among others.
Manufacturing and hospitality industries had the lowest entries this year with both recording less than 2 percent of the entries.
“Manufacturing and hospitality industries numbers went down this year compared to the last two years where we had a strong field from those two industries,” said Melissa Dorsilla, the CIO100 Project Lead at CIO East Africa.
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Government agencies and ministries also made substantive submissions these include Kenya Revenue Authority, Uganda Revenue Authority, Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO), Uganda Investment Authority, National Drug Authority – Uganda, National Hospital Insurance Fund among others.
The adjudication of the awards is on-going and the finalist for the various awards will announced early next week. The adjudication is conducted by a five-person regional jury made up of industry experts from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa. The jury is led by Prof Louis Fourie, former VC at the Western Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
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