Learn more about projects we've worked on
Get updates on new, current and upcoming projects ASSEK has collaborated with differenr partners to deliver substantial results and our time frames for every project. Each featured project is well documented and updated regularly by our project teams.
The GIZ project began in May 2020 and has been a success with the initial objective of the project being capacity building of enablers, professional development, fostered collaborations among ecosystem players.
The Association conducted workshops that equipped ESOs with skills that they need to be able to provide better support for entrepreneurs. The main areas of cooperation for this partnership under the Make IT in Africa Tech Entrepreneurship initiative were:
- Pursuing standardization activities for the Kenyan ecosystem
- Designing and/or facilitating and/or contributing to the development for policy that supports entrepreneurial growth in Kenya through participatory processes
- Connecting the Kenyan ecosystem, regional and/or international entrepreneurship ecosystem networks with the purpose of knowledge sharing and/or pursuing joint interests
Under this partnership we were able to conduct the following activities under member engagement;
- The Mombasa Regional Engagement Forum in the month of July with the topic focusing on Enabling the Future Coastal Entrepreneur’ .
- The Kisumu Regional Engagement Forum in June 2020 with the topic focusing on Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
- The Nairobi Regional Engagement Forum in September 2020 to discuss ways of strengthening the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Kenya through partnerships with local government agencies.
In addition, under the GIZ MAKE IT Project, we were able to carry out a series of knowledge exchange forums in line with our mandate. The knowledge exchange forums served as a platform through which upcoming ESOs and ESO enablers would be able to garner knowledge on matters of sustainability. We were part of the following knowledge exchange forums:
- Kisumu Knowledge Exchange Forum whereby ASSEK partnered with Lake Hub under GIZ to participate in the Lake Basin Innovation and Investment Week in the month of November 2020 to discuss “Strengthening the ESOs community Nationally; Harnessing regional strengths”.
The WIDU Diaspora Remittance Project has also been a focal point of our activities. This project was begun as a result of a partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) WIDU in October 2020, it leverages diaspora remittances to boost small scale start-ups and micro-enterprises with financial grants and business coaching and mentorship.
Project Objectives
The project aims to redirect existing African diaspora remittances into sustainable investments through a platform that will enable transparent and efficient management of the investment. The WIDU project uses an online platform to provide funding and coaching to small businesses in participating African countries.
Impact
So far we have made significant milestones with 270 entrepreneurs having been enrolled in the program, with 141 entrepreneurs receiving funding worth over 30M Kenya Shillings. As we project into the next quarter, we are looking forward to enrolling more entrepreneurs onto the WIDU platform, with the aim of achieving economic breakthroughs and sustainability in Kenya.
Success stories
Our Diaspora Remittance project has come a long way, with over 228 entrepreneurs enrolled on the program. The WIDU team was able to feature some of the successful entrepreneurs from all over the country
Liza Akinyi; httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2umFG1Ks6aY
Pauline Morongoe: httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPOle7SY-Fc
Samuel Gachuru: httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb5SGRDLX_A
ASSEK has entered into a partnership agreement with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), on a project termed as the ESO Digitization Project. The project began in November 2021.
We officially launched the ESO Mapping Exercise on the 29th of March 2022. The first phase of this project has seen the Association through an external Consultant CediA Africa, carry out stakeholder meetings in Kisumu, Coastal Region, Nakuru Region and Nairobi Region. Afterwhich the needs assessment exercise was done by different hub representatives participating in a survey.
Project Objectives
The project objective is to build the capacity of member organizations to be able to deliver services to entrepreneurs within their network so as to be able to close the gaps on access to knowledge , access to investors and access to market through digitization of their processes in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.
10 month project to ‘Building Startups Post-COVID 19 Resilience by Investing in ESOs in Kenya’.
The key projects areas of support include:
- Mapping of the Kenyan ESOs needs and gaps to start, run and manage a sustainable hub
- Roll out capacity building workshops / masterclass to close the identified gaps and challenges
- Support in the digitization of their processes to ensure they can increase their growth and impact.
- Develop a knowledge base for the best practices in digitization that other ESOs outside of the ASSEK network can implement
AGRIJOBS
Drawing from a report conducted by Briter Bridges and Tectona Group titled the Analysis of Western Kenya’s agri-food entrepreneurship ecosystem and development of a holistic strategy to strengthen the ecosystem’s support to rural entrepreneurs within the agri-food sector in Western Kenya, ASSEK together with other collaborators like Lake hub, Association of Countrywide Hubs and Lake Region Economic Bloc(LREB) have joined efforts to implement theAgrijobs Project.
Project Objectives
- Driving policy discussions between ESOs and government on the business environment in the agri-food sector
- Institutional strengthening and capacity building while developing standards/code of conduct and good practices for incubation and acceleration programs in the Western ecosystem
- Overseeing ESOs innovation business hackathon(s) and incubating winning ideas through the Hackathons