Edith and listers

Thanks for your comments. 

The debate on Pasha has been a very interesting one. It is not about whether or not to provide access to grassroots communities. That is a clearly stated government policy, and something we all agree on. Indeed the new constitution mandates this. 

The Pasha debate within the Kenya ICT Board has been about HOW to create a financially and socially sustainable operating model.  

The Kenya ICT Board has been around the country and provided training to would be Pasha managers, some of who are already in business. We have reviewed their business plans. Some make sense and some don't. That is just the way it is. One would expect varying degrees of maturity as the Pasha Centres get deployed over the next few years.

Our studies have indicate that for many rural areas, people cant make money providing just connectivity. And providing internet access without other services would not meet community needs anyway. They have to have a business that meets community information and service needs- in a sense a bouquet of services.

However, our modelling has proven that even in the most remote areas, there is a business case for content services trade and connectivity and we are therefore confident that if entrepreneurs in those areas were provided with assistance.  We felt that this modelling reduced the risk of failure in the implementation of the same. Indeed, the cases of failure of these types of projects elsewhere enriched our experiences.

As an illustration, If you charge Kshs 1 per minute (which is the current rate countrywide in cybers) for even ten straight hours a day that would earn you Kshs 600. per day. If you had borrowed to purchase that computer and printer and fax machine plus paid for the software etc  the business cash flows must pay for that. What businesses can charge for connectivity is reducing as wholesale prices fall further in line with government policy of increasing access.

The issue for the ICT Board has been to ensure that this project creates entrepreneurs in rural communities who can leverage internet access as part of their business offering. In an earlier email I detail areas we have looked at.

The reality on the ground is that there are many cyber cafes in towns across Kenya where one can decent internet access. The improved connectivity situation has made it easier for many to guarantee better services. Indeed most Kenyans across connect to the internet will get access via a mobile modem and mostly one bought from Safaricom. Many cybers run on mobile modems. 

We had substantial delays internally in crafting this strategy and getting the requisite approvals from the World Bank on various aspects of this project. While this happened we were lucky to partner with CISCO, IBM global teams to learn from their experiences around the world on this. We have received many proposals from various bodies to partner on this project which we welcome.  As an example in the early days we even explored turning each PASHA center into an IT training center. This decision would have to be made by the entrepreneur being guided by what can sustain his business.

Initially many thought that the government was going to build physical Pasha Centres from ground up. Now many are clearer that the model is about empowering communities through their own entrepreneurs. The Kenya ICT Board will facilitate as much government content and providing training, technical support and and other capacity support within the defined scope as the Pasha Manager needs. Indeed some may end providing digitization and other services to their local counties.

I hope this sheds some more light.

regards


Paul Kukubo
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
PO Box 27150 - 00100
Nairobi, Kenya

12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street

Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960
Fax: +254 20 2211962
website: www.ict.go.ke
local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya
twitter:@tandaaKENYA
BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke
Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke


personal contacts
_______________

Cell: + 254 717 180001


skype: kukubopaul
googletalk: pkukubo
personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke
personal twitter: @pkukubo


____________________
Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub

Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment


On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 6:47 PM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.or.ke> wrote:
Paul,
 
I'm glad that we are moving towards realizing this dream. We need to move from "will do" mode to "have done" mode!
 
We look forward to the launch and the 90 days after to see this realized (I trust we will get frequent updates).
 
Just some quick observations:-
 
*You mention that KICTB will "provide a technical consultant to support the technical set up and management" and "provide support for Management of the Pasha Community portal to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing among Pasha managers" - here's is where I would suggest strong bottom-up empowerment of communities to technically manage their own networks and also to develop and manage local content that can feed into the larger portal following agreed standards. Uganda's RCDF got consultants to develop district portals - which looked very beautiful, but alas they were soon "stale sites" as they were not updated frequently...there was no community buy-in...a bottom-up approach to empowering people to develop and own their content! This was a big lesson we learnt with the RCDF.
 
*other services could include interactive community-radio hooked to the network and local VOIP services.
 
Finally, why not consider a range of banks? and MFIs? why Family Bank?
 
Edith
 

________________                                   

Edith Ofwona Adera

Senior Program Specialist

ICT4D Program and Climate Change & Water Program

International Development Research Centre | Centre de recherches pour le développement international

Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa

Tel: +254202713160 | Fax/Téléc: +254202711063 | Skype: edithadera

eadera@idrc.or.ke | www.idrc.ca | www.crdi.ca
From: kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Paul Kukubo [pkukubo@ict.go.ke]
Sent: 07 December 2010 10:25
To: Edith Adera

Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: [kictanet] Update on Pasha Centres

Listers


Ø  Kenya ICT Board will facilitate the establishment of digital access centers, to be known as Pasha Centres across the country.

Ø  Facilitation will take the following form

o   An Entrepreneurs will obtain a loan from Family Bank for up to a maximum of Kshs 3M to set-up or expand and existing digital access centre.

o   Kenya ICT Board will provide a technical consultant to support the technical set up and management.

o   Branding and communication support in order to manage the Pasha Brand and drive consumer interest and usage.

o   Management of the Pasha Community portal to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing among Pasha managers.

o   Continuous Training and skills development for Pasha Owners.

o   Liaison with public sector and local and international content providers who may want to access the public through the Pasha network.

 

Ø  Pasha Centres will provide a variety of services that could include the following:

o   Internet access, including serving as wifi hotspot providers for the area.

o   Training and educational material provision

o   Mobile and agency banking

o   Other retail services

o   Money transfer services

o   Government services

o   Jobs bureau

o   Supply chain facilitation including assisting retailers and wholesalers with IT needs

o   Technology support centres for the region

o   Tourism support

o   NGO Liaison support

o   Data collection for government, NGOs and private sector

o   Business Process outsourcing and data entry services

 

The Plan

Ø  Monday 24th January 2011, public launch of Pasha Project.

Ø  Target date for first disbursement of loan is 90 days from launch date. The disbursing bank will require 90 days to review applicants and conclude initial loan disbursements.

Ø  Disbursements will be made to entrepreneurs who fulfill agreed conditions and don’t necessarily have to be among those that had received Pasha training prior. Kenya ICT Board in 2009 and 2010 had conducted nationwide 3 week training of 1000 people in business management, entrepreneurship, marketing, basic accounting and technical management (a starter-kit) to prepare potential pasha managers to run Pasha centre.

Ø  The agreement with the bank is to ensure we disburse at least one loan per county within the year. Our eventual target is to have 210 pasha centers, one in each constituency by 2012. We shall asses the appetite and would not be surprised if the demand for loans exceeds our target.

Ø  We shall encourage entrepreneurs to partner with the networks and any other organizations to beef up their business plans in preparation for loan application and to make their businesses more commercially viable.

 

Mechanics of disbursement

All applications will be forwarded to family bank for commercial assessment. Family bank and an committee appointed by the Kenya ICT Board will assess the best loan candidates on a set of agreed criteria and award the loan against this and a sound and verified business plan. We shall be keen to ensure that people don’t push through paper plans for the sake of cash.

More details will be available on www.ict.go.ke and www.pasha .co.ke



Paul Kukubo
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
PO Box 27150 - 00100
Nairobi, Kenya

12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street

Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960
Fax: +254 20 2211962
website: www.ict.go.ke
local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya
twitter:@tandaaKENYA
BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke
Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke


personal contacts
_______________

Cell: + 254 717 180001


skype: kukubopaul
googletalk: pkukubo
personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke
personal twitter: @pkukubo


____________________
Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub

Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment