Kenyan and Ugandan IT companies urged to increase competitiveness, gain offshore clients (en)

Information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITES) companies in Kenya and Uganda have an opportunity to increase their export competitiveness and connect with new clients through a new project to be implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC).

The project, called ‘Enhancing Export Competitiveness in the IT & ITES Sector in Kenya and Uganda, is an initiative of the Netherlands Trust Fund (NTF) III programme. Thirty-three micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), as well as start-up companies, will be selected to participate in Kenya while 30 MSMEs in Uganda will be selected based on their Expressions of Interest.

The selected businesses will receive training and advisory services on topics such as export marketing and access to finance. They will gain market linkages through business-to-business matchmaking events in Europe and Africa and through participation in trade fairs. And they will be offered the opportunity to take part in promotional activities through online and traditional media.

Criteria for selection

Companies will be selected based on criteria aimed at identifying their capacity to fully benefit from the project. Criteria include the company’s demonstrated IT expertise; clarity of its strategy, particularly its export strategy; company size; financial soundness of the company; attitude towards employment of women; and availability of marketing and communications material, such as a website and brochures.

Using these criteria, a team of independent IT experts will select 33 enterprises to be part of NTF III Kenya and 30 enterprises to be part of NTF III Uganda. The team’s recommendation will be reviewed by the ITC project management team, after which the selected companies are informed.

Application deadline

The application deadline is midnight (East Africa time) on Thursday 13 November 2014. Women-led and women-owned companies are highly encouraged to apply.

NTF III Kenya will be implemented in partnership with Kenyan IT Outsourcing Society (KITOS) and the Information and Communication Technology Authority (ICTA)

NTF III Uganda will be implemented in partnership with the Uganda Business Process Outsourcing Association (UBPOA), the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) and the ICT Association of Uganda (ICTAU).

Expression of Interest Kenya 

Expression of Interest Uganda 

NTF III is a three-year initiative funded by the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Find more information about the NTF III Kenya IT & ITES project and NTF III Uganda IT & ITES Project

For questions about the application process, please send an e-mail to ntf3 [at] intracen.org (ntf3[at]intracen.org).