COMESA funds incubator projects

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) will fund incubator projects in order to strengthen international trade and market share in the region.

COMESA will provide grants to small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in eight African countries -- including Zambia, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Malawi and Rwanda -- in order to help those SMEs integrate ICT into daily business operations.

Grants will range from €5,000 (US$7,876.55) to €15,000, according to Claes Rasvall, COMESA program manager for the Regional ICT Support Program. The grants cover 75 percent of the total cost of each incubator project, while the receiving organization is expected to contribute 25 percent of the cost.

To qualify, an organization must be a business incubator, business development center, university, nongovernmental organization or women's group, Rasvall explained.

“The grants are meant to support incubator projects that demonstrate the viability of the Internet,” he said.

The grants are the first to be distributed to incubator projects following COMESA's undertaking of a regional ICT regulatory and policy harmonization program aimed at removing constraints to ICT usage among COMESA member countries.

The incubator projects will be funded through a grant scheme under the Regional ICT Support Program, which is being financed by the European Development Fund. So far, the fund has provided COMESA with €20 million to be used over a period of three years for the incubator projects and harmonization program.