Kenya ICT Board Learns Tough Lessons from Digital Villages Project
"The Pasha fund was created to provide seed capital to entrepreneurs interested in setting up businesses in the 210 constituencies. The people would receive funds ranging from Ksh. 850,000 to 2 million (US$10,000 to $25,000). They would then set up the business, provide value addition and allow the business to sustain itself with time and repay the loan. There was a rigorous application exercise but we assumed several things; that the people applying had studied their areas and found the kind of services that would work, that the people had entrepreneurship skills, that business mentorship was easily available and that government services would be digitized fast enough to allow the businesses to thrive." http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036710/kenya-ict-board-learns-tough-lessons-...
Hi, There is a saying that "only a fool insists on learning from his own mistakes" if you follow the discussions on this forum concerning the PASHA center issue you will realise that many of us went out of our way to give our contributions on how it could be made more effective but as is the standard procedure with the KICTB we where all dismissed because we do have headquarters in the Northern hemisphere we where ignored. The errors of the PASHA center was experienced previously with the so called youth enterprise programs of President Moi's and President Kibaki's government which says a lot about the governments silo mentality. PASHA funds should have been used to grow existing cybers which where already meeting their overheads therefore the additional funds could be put into expansion which was not the case where the funds where given to a new operator. The logic for not following this advice was that those with exiting operation did not apply for the funds, but wouldn't it have been prudent to go to them instead? Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Rebecca Wanjiku <rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Friday, 3 May 2013, 10:49 Subject: [kictanet] Kenya ICT Board Learns Tough Lessons from Digital Villages Project "The Pasha fund was created to provide seed capital to entrepreneurs interested in setting up businesses in the 210 constituencies. The people would receive funds ranging from Ksh. 850,000 to 2 million (US$10,000 to $25,000). They would then set up the business, provide value addition and allow the business to sustain itself with time and repay the loan. There was a rigorous application exercise but we assumed several things; that the people applying had studied their areas and found the kind of services that would work, that the people had entrepreneurship skills, that business mentorship was easily available and that government services would be digitized fast enough to allow the businesses to thrive." http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036710/kenya-ict-board-learns-tough-lessons-... _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co.... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
"One of the positive lessons we learned was that businesses led by women were more sustainable because women were more conscious of commitments and expectations." - VK 2013/5/3 robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
Hi,
There is a saying that "only a fool insists on learning from his own mistakes" if you follow the discussions on this forum concerning the PASHA center issue you will realise that many of us went out of our way to give our contributions on how it could be made more effective but as is the standard procedure with the KICTB we where all dismissed because we do have headquarters in the Northern hemisphere we where ignored.
The errors of the PASHA center was experienced previously with the so called youth enterprise programs of President Moi's and President Kibaki's government which says a lot about the governments silo mentality.
PASHA funds should have been used to grow existing cybers which where already meeting their overheads therefore the additional funds could be put into expansion which was not the case where the funds where given to a new operator. The logic for not following this advice was that those with exiting operation did not apply for the funds, but wouldn't it have been prudent to go to them instead?
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ------------------------------ *From:* Rebecca Wanjiku <rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com> *To:* robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Sent:* Friday, 3 May 2013, 10:49 *Subject:* [kictanet] Kenya ICT Board Learns Tough Lessons from Digital Villages Project
"The Pasha fund was created to provide seed capital to entrepreneurs interested in setting up businesses in the 210 constituencies. The people would receive funds ranging from Ksh. 850,000 to 2 million (US$10,000 to $25,000). They would then set up the business, provide value addition and allow the business to sustain itself with time and repay the loan. There was a rigorous application exercise but we assumed several things; that the people applying had studied their areas and found the kind of services that would work, that the people had entrepreneurship skills, that business mentorship was easily available and that government services would be digitized fast enough to allow the businesses to thrive."
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036710/kenya-ict-board-learns-tough-lessons-...
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Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co....
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/nmutungu%40gmail.com
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
-- Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu) Kenya Skype: gracebomu Twitter: @Bomu Website: http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org/profile/GraceMutungu
participants (3)
-
Grace Mutung'u (Bomu) -
Rebecca Wanjiku -
robert yawe