National Innovation Awards
Funds Kenyan startups and companies that have built technology products in priority sectors through direct cash awards from KeNIA's National Innovation Awards program.
The National Innovation Awards (also referred to as the National Innovation Program or NIP) is a direct cash grant program administered by the Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA), operating under the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Act No. 28 of 2013. KeNIA uses it to identify, recognize, and fund Kenyan innovators — both individuals and registered companies — that have made notable progress in technology across national priority areas. The program is the historical predecessor to the Presidential Innovation Challenge and Award (PIA), which replaced it circa 2023.
Award amounts documented from 2016 onwards: Sapama Technologies (a for-profit ERP software company) received Ksh 500,000 (KES 500,000) via the National Innovation Awards program in 2016. The 2020/2021 National Innovation Award also references four winning innovations. Historical award amounts in PIA (the successor) range from KES 500,000 (county youth winners) to KES 5,000,000 (category winners). No pool figure is published for the NIA program specifically.
Eligibility: for-profit Kenyan startups and companies directly apply. Named beneficiaries include Sapama Technologies (ICT/enterprise software), Pawa Tele (smart energy), ECORIDER (electric motorcycle), and Genomics and Bioinformatics Platform (health). No explicit cap on company age, size, or revenue appears in available sources. Applicants must have developed a technology that solves a significant problem in a national priority area.
The program has run at least three documented cohorts: 2016/2017, 2017/2018, and 2018/2019. A 2020/2021 edition is documented in a KeNIA blog post. As of 2023, the program appears to have been subsumed into the Presidential Innovation Challenge and Award (PIA), which is KeNIA's current active grant vehicle. No standalone NIA call has been identified in 2023 or later.
To apply for current KeNIA funding, see the Presidential Innovation Challenge and Award (ke-kenia-pia-2025-2026) at pia.kenia.go.ke.
Agriculture and natural resources, energy and manufacturing, water sanitation and health, ICT, and environmental management — broad technology focus across national priority sectors.
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