Miss.Africa Digital Announces the 2019 Seed Fund Winners
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius - Oct. 25, 2019: The pioneering Miss.Africa Digital, a DCA Digital Academy Pan-African program of DotConnectAfrica (DCA) Trust, has announced the winners of the fourth prestigious Africa-focused seed fund award.

The 2019 Grand Prize Winner of the Prestigious Miss.Africa Digital Seed Fund award is KampaBits of Uganda. BasaliTech, Lesotho and Ace Commmunications, from The Gambia are both winners in the Second category prize.

The Women-In-Tech seed fund award is now in its fourth year and offers grants to support women and girls in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields to launch or expand their own initiatives that will increase their digital opportunities in IT related training, jobs and leadership roles.

"Each year we are delighted to see growth and skills development and at this fourth year's seed funding round, the quality of the applications exemplifies the deep desire for digital knowledge, this remains is unmatched"
---Ms. Kim Gueho, DCA Trust Corporate Trustee and Miss.Africa Co-Evaluation Committee.

 --- "Its unbelievable, it was just a few years ago when we launched this amazing Seed Funding program to enhance and enable digital skillsets for women and girls, and to see us awarding the fourth round winners just shows the thirst for closing the digital gap." Sophia Bekele,  Founder & Champion of Miss.Africa Digital Program complimented the winners
Grand prize of Five Thousand United States Dollars (5000 USD) category:   

KampaBits, Uganda

"We are extremely honored to emerge as winners of the prestigious Miss Africa Digital Seed fund grant 2019. Winning this grant is one big step that has opened doors for us to be part of something great as well as positively impact the girl child in the technology field.

We are going to use this grant to increase on our capacity thus accommodating and facilitating more girls in our technology training. We would like to thank DotConnectAfrica for their initiative aimed at empowering more women to engage in STEM and related careers. We can’t wait to see our training empowering more and more girls with the soft & programming skills.

For all the ladies, yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose, so lets all be part, STEM has space for us all." Ms Mbawomye Justine (Project Manager, KampaBits Uganda)

KampaBits; Is a youth based organization that exists to positively change the lives of vulnerable youth in Uganda by improving their access to productive employment as well as their ability to cope with their social environment through creativity and innovation. Read more
Ace Communications, The Gambia
(One Thousand United States Dollars (1000 USD) category)
"We are pleased to be recipients of the Miss Africa Seed Fund. The Fund will play a role in supporting our initiative to engage and enlighten young Gambian girls in ICT while building their confidence to pursue future careers in STEM. Thank you"

Mrs. Fatim Badjie, (Ace Communications Executive, The Gambia)
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Ace Communications Executive (ACE) will train students from all seven (7) regions of the Gambia in introductory topics. Students will be selected from each region, after which they will travel to the West Coast Region to attend the camp with a counselor, a social protection worker and a teacher from each region.

The total duration of the camp will be two (2) weeks. The methodology in use will be an incorporation of interactive lab activities, presentations and workshops to further enrich their camping experience and enhance their knowledge of ICT. Read more
BasaliTech, Lesotho
(One Thousand United States Dollars (1000 USD) category)
“It is so amazing to see the smiles on these young girls' faces when they run their first program, launch their first website or even interact with computers for the first time. BasaliTech is honoured to have been recognized and deemed worthy by the Miss Africa Seed Fund among so many initiatives and supported to continue making such an invaluable impact to Lesotho's community.

This comes at a time for the 4th Industrial Revolution where we need to equip the nation with relevant skills to thrive in an era where technology dominates while also contributing to the sustainable development goals and helping these young girls secure their futures through STEM training and mentorship" - Setsoto Hlohlomi, BasaliTech Cofounder
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BasaliTech aims to bridge the gender gap and increase female participation in science, technology, engineering and technology (STEM) through science and technology training and mentorship. Read more
Following the 2019 call for expression of interest for the Seed Fund, over 350 applications were recieved and we appreciate and acknowledge the increased interest in the program.

We have now covered a total of 12 African nations with the 2018 winners coming from Kumasi Hive, Ghana; EcoSol, Seychelles and CRNS Sfax, Tunisia.

For more information on the Miss.Africa Digital Seed Fund awards, visit the MissDotAfrica.Digital website.
About Miss.Africa Digital Program
The pioneering Miss.Africa Digital Program is a gender-focused initiative targeted mainly at female youth audiences in Africa to increase their personal involvement in early technology use and adoption with a view to improving their digital self-awareness and empowerment, and bridging the economic divide through employment and/or entrepreneurship.
 
It is envisioned as one of the central pillars of DotConnectAfrica Trust’s corporate social responsibility program, to attract a sizable women and girls demographic of Internet users in Africa in complementary gender development initiatives that improve the lives through digital inclusion.
 
Led by the DCA Academy, the Miss.Africa Digital also announced the prestigious annual Seed Fund program in Africa that provides grants to support women and girls in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields to launch or expand their own initiatives that will increase their digital opportunities in IoTs, Mobile Internet, E-Commerce, Digital Marketing and leadership roles. The Seed Fund program is interested in learning about successful activities that are currently supporting women and girls in STEM, and through this effort, we identify how we might support scalability and their impacts.