Dear All, In todays Daily Nation, the ICT Board advertised (p 18) for Digital Village Entrepreneurs. This is very significant in the sense that we are now very close to involving our rural folks in creating wealth through ICT enterprise. In the past few months since the idea of DVs was mooted, we have learnt a great deal and new rural technologies have emerged. Private sector is beginning to see opportunities in our rural areas. Similar programs elsewhere have often been taken up by the private sector and escalated Broadband penetration. In Slovakia for example Government direct subsidies to rural areas has helped the country achieve the greatest broadband density in Europe. The subsidy drove demand for broadband beyond any estimates. In Chile direct subsidy, intense government local content coupled with tax incentives for rural infrastructure helped the country take broadband to the even sparsely populated Tundra regions of the Andes. Farmers in the region have as much as 11 MB broadband to homes. Operators are happy and productively utilizing rural Base Stations without additional subsidies. Although in our case we have managed some sort of subsidy, we need more especially tax incentives on rural infrastructure. With incentives, it will be attractive for operators to take up rural connectivity on commercial basis. We shall be through with the supply side of ICTs when the undersea, the terrestrial fibre, data centers, disaster recovery centers and network operation centers are ready in the next few months. Some of these projects are being undertaken by the private sector and where necessary the Government may intervene marginally. The challenge now lies on the Demand side. The risk is that operators may concentrate to provide for the bent up demand in urban areas forgetting rural areas. Yet Mpesa shows us that the money is in rural areas. The purpose of this e-mail therefore, is to seek for your support in identifying youth from your rural areas (that is if you come from a village like me) and recommend them to Victor at the ICT Board. I know there are other private initiatives outside of operators intending to support the DV project but we are still grabbling with how this can be distinctively done without causing confusion. Knowing that we have a great resource in you (Kictanet) I am confident that your contribution would enhance the efforts to scale up ICTs in our country. Asante. Bitange Ndemo. ---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"