The ICT Authority hosted the virtual graduation ceremony for the Presidential Digital Talent Programme (PDTP) held in July 2020.
Among the partners present was Huawei Kenya which sponsored the Innovation Award for this Cohort, for the fourth year running.
This cohort’s overall award winner was Traffic E-court. Other winners were Crysis Nduku who was chosen from a very competitive shortlist of 3, with Mbae Lloyd Mawira taking the first runner up spot and Automated Token System rounding off the top 3.
The award is given by Huawei Kenya to an individual or group of interns who have developed an idea or prototype that meets a proven need, can have major impact, is unique, has a viable business model, is feasible, is relevant to the government’s agenda, is well presented, and has a capable team behind it.
Read: Huawei Protests US’ Move To Blacklist Them Over Trade Wars
Traffic E-court, the winning award, was developed by Annastacia Muisyo. She explains that the system uses intelligent speed cameras that capture vehicle speed and feed the information about speeding vehicles to a database that is used to send alerts to the owner’s mobile phone number to pay the fine within a specified period of time or get a court summons.
The Presidential Digital Talent Programme (PDTP) takes ICT graduates through a one-year program including internships in public sector and private sector, mentorship and multiple trainings which are designed to build their ICT capabilities, support government digitization and prepare them for the ICT industry.
Whilst undertaking their internship in the public sector, the students are challenged to identify opportunities for innovative solutions that will solve some of the challenges in the public sector agency. They are provided with structured support to implement their innovations and submit them for judging by a panel of public and private sector experts.
With the feedback from the judges, it is hoped that many of the innovations that don’t win prizes are still implemented to improve service delivery for Kenyan citizens. The top three teams gain support in further developing and implementing their innovation, receiving a stipend and technical support from Huawei Kenya.
Read: Huawei Overtakes Samsung To Become Top Global Smartphone Vendor
During the awards ceremony Huawei Kenya also received the award for the best private sector company supporting the Presidential Digital Talent Programme (PDTP) Innovations at the 4th graduation ceremony.
Apart from supporting the innovation award each year; since the program began, Huawei has supported the initiative by providing over 50 corporate internships, training over 900 students in Routing & Switching, AI, Cloud and Security, providing mentors and sharing facilities to host PDTP events.
The Chief Guest of the event was the Cabinet Secretary for ICT, Innovation & Youth Affairs, Joe Mucheru who was represented by the Chief Administrative Secretary, Maureen Mbaka.
In his remarks, the Cabinet Secretary congratulated the graduating Cohort and reminded them that “ICT is now at the centre stage of Kenya’s development plans especially as the world adjusts to the effects of the (Covid-19) pandemic”.
Read: Huawei Initiative Gives a Lifeline to e-learning During Covid-19 Pandemic
Kenya’s ICT Authority CEO Dr. Katherine Getao congratulated the winners whilst handing them the award. She also commended Huawei noting that it has been a key partner in the DigiTalent program, showing their strong commitment to supporting local ICT talent and local innovation.
Other winners included Serge Blockmans from EPI-USE East Africa who won the best Mentors Awards category and Jane Otoko from the Ministry of Health who won the best supervisor’s Awards category, among many others.
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