With $80K grant, Kisumu-based Zone01 to train hundreds of Kenyan programmers

With a KES10 million (US $80,000) grant from KIEP-SKIES, youth coding accelerator Zone01, owned by the Kisumu-based LakeHub, intends to teach hundreds of young Kenyans to code and find them employment.

Zone01 Kisumu, which was established last year, annually trains and places at least 100 young people in Kisumu County in tech-related jobs. By providing a three-year guaranteed employment contract after a two-year fully funded software development training program, it achieves this.

A KES10 million grant obtained from the Kenya Industry and Entrepreneurship Project-Strengthening Kenya’s Innovation Ecosystem (KIEP-SKIES) training initiative is currently helping the program, which is a collaboration between LakeHub, Kisumu County Government, 01 Talent Africa, and the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA).

“There is a global shortage of 4.5 million coders. We want to train part of Africa’s growing youth population to fill these roles. Because higher education is expensive, exclusive and out of touch with current and ever-evolving tech industry, we think that by offering a tuition-free, stipend-paid, peer-to-peer learning, two-year training, we can kill two birds – youth unemployment and shortage of skilled coders – with one stone,” Dorcas Owino, managing director of Zone01, told Media.

After receiving more than 13,000 applications, 100 young people were chosen for cohort one, who will receive a monthly stipend of $100 USD while they train to become programmers for two years. There are currently 600 people on the waiting list for cohort two.

“We are currently using up resources to upskill the talents. Once done, we’ll deploy them to the market as Zone01 Kisumu staff to work on tech projects and get paid. Essentially, we’ll outsource their skills to companies who’ll pay us for using our talent. The talent will not be required to pay back any money to us,” Owino said.

It is currently grant-funded by KIEP-SKIES, which aims to retrain hundreds of techies nationwide to acquire essential ICT skills for the rapidly changing labor market through four bootcamp intermediaries entrusted with carrying out the KIEP-SKIES rapid technical skills training program in Kenya. This is why the grant reward will help Zone01 Kisumu apprentices pay for their tuition and expand the program.

“This grant will boost our efforts to attract more women to the tech industry as well as maintain our promise of providing sustenance stipends to our trainees,” said Owino.