On Wed Aug 31st, 2011 7:00 AM PDT warigia bowman wrote:
>Dear colleagues
>
>Here is an article I wrote which appeared in Smart Company in the Daily
>Nation on Tuesday. Victor Gathara and I will be writing a more comprehensive
>report in the coming months. I had put in some compliments to the ICT Board
>staff and the Safaricom staff, but those were edited out by the nation.
>
>Yours, Rigia
>
>BY WARIGIA BOWMAN
>
>
warigia@aucegypt.edu
>
>
>
>Plans are afoot to improve access to computing and Internet infrastructure
>in rural Kenya, thanks to an initiative between the government and the
>private sector. In April 2010, the ICT Board, which is part of the
>Ministry of Information and Communication, promised to connect each
>constituency by setting up a digital centre, complete with five computers
>and Internet connectivity, under the Pasha Centres programme.
>
>Kupasha is Kiswahili for “to inform”. The Pasha Centre project is being
>supported by $4 million (about Sh36 million) in revolving World Bank funds
>administered by Family Bank.
>
>Indeed, the Kenya Communication Amendment Act 2009 stipulates that the
>Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) should levy telecoms operators a
>universal access fund of one per cent of their total revenue to be used for
>rural connectivity.
>
>Access to portals
>
>According to the regulator, 90 per cent of Kenya’s 6.4 million Internet
>users (2010) are in Nairobi and Mombasa. Both the digital villages and the
>pasha centres are to offer services such as access to government portals
>like NSSF, identity and driver licensing services, Teacher Service
>Commission information, HELB loans and information on farming, as well as
>access to e-health and e-learning.
>
>This all sounds fantastic and exciting... on paper. Unfortunately, the
>reality on the ground is different. A multi-sectoral group of academics,
>private sector consultants and civil society activists have visited 20 per
>cent of all pasha centres in Kenya, as well as 15 digital villages, over the
>past two months.
>
>What the group found is a matter of concern to anyone interested in rural
>connectivity in Africa.
>
>The number of digital villages and pasha centres that are actually open for
>business is only a fraction of the reported total. The ICT Board provided
>the research team with the list of all approved centres.
>
>Only 37 have actually been approved, although each of Kenya’s 210
>constituencies is entitled to one. Of these, only two in the sample of 10
>had actually received all of the money awarded to them and had opened for
>business.
>
>In addition, Safaricom provided the research team with a list of 147 digital
>villages, not 500. On the list of 147, the identifying information was
>incomplete and vague.
>
>The team visited pashas and digital villages in Malindi, Embu, Meru,
>Muranga, Maragwa, Nyeri, Isiolo, Samburu, Oloitoktok, Machakos, Wote and
>Mbumbuni. It was, however, yet to visit and evaluate pashas in Western,
>Kisii and Nyanza regions.
>
>Overall, the conditions in the ICT Board run pashas were better than those
>in the Safaricom-run digital villages, although the pashas also needed
>improvements.
>
>Owners were, on the whole, fairly well educated IT experts, good
>businesspeople and visionaries. The two pashas (Mbumbuni and Maragwa) that
>had actually opened offered a range of services, including photocopying,
>printing, typesetting, printing photos, browsing and IT training.
>
>Most of the centres had heard of e-health and e-learning, but did not
>really know what these terms meant and had received no training from the ICT
>Board in these areas, although the topics were mentioned at one training the
>pasha owners received in late May.
>
>Further, owners had little knowledge of what government services they could
>offer other than the registration of KRA pin details and downloading of
>police abstracts. Most had received little or no support regarding branding
>and marketing, and one of the open facilities was making a serious financial
>loss.
>
>However, it is easy to criticise and hard to build. In that spirit, here are
>some constructive suggestions.
>
>First, the MOIC, CCK and ICT Board should work together to implement the tax
>of one per cent on all telecommunications operators this year.
>
>Based on a quick back of the envelope calculation, this will amount to
>approximately Sh4 billion per year. Part of this money should support extra
>staff on the pasha centre project.Right now, there are only two people
>working on the pasha project at the ICT Board.
>
>Second, tariffs must come down. Every pasha owner and digital village
>operator we spoke to said tariffs were too high. Indeed, the ICT Board had
>promised pasha operators free connectivity for a year.
>
>Regardless, operators and digital village operators must be given highly
>preferential rates by telecommunications operators.
>
>In addition, pasha owners and digital village operators need support and
>training in marketing, branding, and proper use of government portals.
>
>Owners need to be sensitised on the wealth of information with regard to
>farming and husbandry, including Kenya Seeds,
www.infonet-biovision.org,
>icow, and
www.nafis.go.ke.
>
>Finally, Safaricom should expand the resources it invests in each digital
>village.
>
>There are many other reforms needed, but if the government and
>telecommunications operators can pay attention to these few suggestions,
>Kenya can attain true rural connectivity.
>
>
>
>Dr Bowman is an ICT expert in the American University, Cairo