British taxpayers have been left footing the bill for a “pleasure-oriented” sex chatbot for young people in Kenya, funded through a £41 million UK foreign aid scheme—despite evidence it failed to deliver any real health benefits, according to a report by The Telegraph.
The app, known as Nena, was developed using UK aid money in 2019 under the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Ideas to Impact programme, which pours millions into experimental tech projects in the developing world.
Marketed as a digital companion to help users “explore sexual health,” the chatbot targeted 18- to 24-year-olds and placed a heavy emphasis on sexual pleasure. An academic review later found that around 70 per cent of all app views focused on sex and pleasure topics.
But the results were grim. Of more than 1,100 users referred by the app to local sexual health clinics, not a single case led to further action. Researchers also found no evidence the chatbot increased contraceptive use.
The failure comes despite Kenya facing one of the world’s worst HIV crises, with young people accounting for more than half of new infections.
The Foreign Office refused to say how much British taxpayers’ cash was spent on the chatbot, saying it was “not appropriate” to comment on funding decisions made by previous governments.
Nena was just one of a string of eye-catching projects funded under Ideas to Impact, which has also paid for smart condom and contraceptive vending machines in Nairobi and experimental cold-storage schemes elsewhere in Africa. The programme has been extended and is set to end next year after burning through £41 million.
The revelations have fuelled fresh anger over Britain’s overseas aid budget, already under pressure at home.
Lee Anderson, the Reform MP for Ashfield, said the scheme showed how far foreign aid had drifted from common sense.
“I remember a time when money sent abroad was meant to help irrigate and farm the land in poorer countries,” he said. “British taxpayers’ money should not be being wasted on these ridiculous schemes. Whoever dreamt up this idea needs sacking.”
The chatbot was funded through the Foreign Office’s Frontier Hub, which backs early-stage technology ideas dreamed up by civil servants described as “pioneers” testing “radical solutions” to development problems.
