Deadline: 6 March 2017
The National ICT R&D Fund is seeking proposals for its “ICT for Women Entrepreneurship Development Program” to provide services to train women entrepreneurs to leverage ICT for their businesses. The applicant entities should be on Active Taxpayers List (ATL) of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
Pakistan has witnessed a phenomenal growth in its telecom industry. The Government of Pakistan (GoP) has mandated that a certain percentage of gross revenue generated by all telecom service providers be allocated to development and research of information and communication technologies with the vision to transform Pakistan’s economy into a knowledge based economy by promoting efficient, sustainable and effective ICT initiatives through synergic development of industrial and academic resources. To achieve this vision National ICT R&D Fund, hereafter referred as the Company, has been created.
Program Goals
- Cultivate industry-academia partnership by funding concrete development and research initiatives.
- Enhance the national ICT related human resource development capacity manifolds by facilitating industrial demand focused human resource capacity building and R&D capabilities in the country and promoting ICT related educational programs and activities.
- Make Pakistan an attractive destination for service oriented and research and development related outsourced jobs.
- Use ICT as a tool for wealth creation and upward mobility for economically challenged groups of citizens.
- Spread the ICT activities on a true national level.
Funding Information
- National ICT R&D Fund estimates the maximum cost of Rs. 30,000 per participant (inclusive of all cost elements and all applicable taxes) for a maximum of 500 participants. It also includes allowance of Rs.300/- per day per participant for a maximum of 500 participants. This may be included in the budget by the firm.
- The whole training program is expected to be completed within six months from date of award of contract.
Eligibility Criteria
- The target audience i.e.:
- “Existing Women Entrepreneurs” for this program is defined as: “women who have initiated an entrepreneurial venture or a new business in the form of a company, a partnership or temporary organization formed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model”.
- “Potential Women Entrepreneurs’’ for this program is defined as: “women who have the potential/intend to startup a business and are ICT savvy. Young graduates having basic knowledge of ICT having potential including a business idea for a startup would be preferred”
- The bidder should ensure that participants for both the segments are ICT savvy and have basic education/understanding of ICT.
- It is envisaged that at maximum 500 women are to be trained in total with at least 70 in each center.
- In each center preferably 50% of women should be existing women entrepreneurs and remaining should be potential women entrepreneurs.
- A minimum of 80% of attendance will be the mandatory requirement for awarding the certificate to a participant of training.
- The successful bidder should ensure that at least 80% of the enrolled participants in a venue complete the training program.
- The bidder must fulfill the following conditions:
- Must agree to open a separate bank account for funds provided by National ICT R&D Fund.
- Must agree to allow National ICT R&D Fund assigned auditors to check the accounts opened for National ICT R&D Fund funding, as and when required.
- Must not be blacklisted by any organization or faced contract cancellation for contractual violations by NATIONAL ICT R&D FUND in any previous program.
How to Apply
Applications must be submitted via postal address given on the website.
Eligible Country: Pakistan
For more information, please visit National ICT R&D Fund.