National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) on Wednesday began fund-raising efforts for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, signing a contract worth of 100 million Kenyan shillings (about 1.5 million U.S. dollars) for preparation and sending Kenya's team to China, the Kenya Times reported Thursday.

NOCK's Fundraising Board signed an agreement with Premium Rated Service Provider to GSM networks, Wasp Africa Limited, where the latter will conduct a national lottery through SMS to secure funds for the games.

During the contract-signing ceremony at the Committee's headquarters, NOCK secretary general Tom O'Omuombo expressed assurance that Wasp would meet the set target.

"This is our major fundraising effort to give exposure to and send our teams to Olympics. We are confident that Wasp will raise as much money as they can but 100 million Shillings is our minimal target."

He added that other events such as golf tournament would be used to secure finances for the team.

Wasp CEO Sam Kamau said his firm would use a premium rated SMS campaign running for 90 days where Kenyans would be asked to support their Olympic team and win attractive prizes in a raffle.

"We are approaching corporate ventures in Kenya to support this initiative by providing prizes for a SMS raffle. In turn, these companies will be granted rights to use the Olympic rings and Bingwa (Kenyan) mascot to market their products as official sponsors of the Olympic team," Kamau said.

He added, "We hope to raise much more than the stated target where the balance will be used for the (2010) Commonwealth Games and London 2012 Olympics."