Listers The Kenya ICT Board PASHA Project has now entered the selection and implementation stage for the first phase during which we anticipate to disburse 47 loans (one per county) to Pasha Entrepreneurs by mid 2011. At the close of the loan application on 25th February 2011, Family Bank received 689 applications out of a total of 800 inquiries that had been made. Most applications were submitted on the last day. The Kenya ICT Board has allowed close to a month for loan submissions from 24th January 2011 when the call for Applications was made. Applications received have been widespread across all counties. Important to note is that 25% of the applicants have been by women and we look forward to growing this in the future. We further note that business plans received from entrepreneurs who had previously participated in the nationwide Pasha business planning training offered by the KICTB tended to be very comprehensive. The Kenya ICT Board is working well with all network operators to ensure all centres have access to reliable internet connectivity and have the ability to offer citizens a suite of relevant and compelling services. Entrepreneurs will be able to offer services such as operator retail offers, e-learning, selling of accessories, faxing, internet access, etc, from within the PASHA centers. The Kenya ICT Board will conduct evaluations of the applications received on 11th of April 2011 and announce final successful loan applicants shortly thereafter. This is only the first phase of the Pasha Loan scheme; we eventually want to create a Pasha centre in every constituency, likely by end 2011. The Pasha project falls under the Kenya ICT Board’s digital inclusion pillar which aims to increase access to ICTs by citizens across Kenya. It complements the other Kenya ICT Board agenda to stimulate job and wealth creation in ICT through entrepreneurship. This in line with Kenya’ Vision 2030. ends 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 googletalk: pkukubo personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke personal twitter: @pkukubo facebook: facebook/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