[kictanet] Fw: Re: [NewVisionKenya] Voiceless 'KnowledgeWorkers'

Fri Jun 13 15:13:17 EAT 2008

Bw Peres,

There are great ideas, and the Government does need to outsource what is not their core business, I happen to live work in Maryland where the US Government provides just the support that you are talking about, their NSSF has outsourced their complete DATA services, and the numbers benefiting directly from this are staggering and they are not done yet!  I hear that next year our area due to closed/consolidated bases will be getting 60,000 more jobs!  

If BPOs are to succeed then the Government needs to play their part and this is inaddition to addressing issues such as addressed by Dr Marwanga, after all providing an enabling environment is one of the Government's core mission.

Paul if you are reading this., I think marketing is one of the core responsibilities that your ICT board has, and take it from me that Kenya will not sell and market itself, you all have a lot of work to do if you are to compete with India and South Africa in making Kenya the BPO center of the world, so drive on!

Lucy 

-..-- On Fri, 6/13/08, Peres Were <pwere at cascadegl.com> wrote:
..
From: Peres Were <pwere at cascadegl.com>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Fw: Re: [NewVisionKenya] Voiceless 'KnowledgeWorkers'
To: lkimani at yahoo.com
Cc: "'New Vision List'" <newvisionkenya at yahoogroups.com>, "'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Friday, June 13, 2008, 1:20 AM

Knowledge-based start-ups have a central role in generating the future economy of Kenya , however, they are being impeded by various challenges such as the ones mentioned by Marwanga.

The most vibrant economies in the world are the ones that have policies and structures that motivate entrepreneurs towards greater innovative activities. The United States economy for instance, has developed a strong entrepreneurial culture and constantly strives to create policies and regulations that encourage effective entrepreneurship. Strong state support systems are in place to advance enterprise development. These include funding, access to information resources, enterprise education and so forth. SME’s occupy 85% of firms in the US and create the majority of jobs.

In the United Kingdom , the government has developed and implemented regional policies on entrepreneurship so as to provide effective small business support. The regeneration of urban and rural areas through SME’s is encouraged. There is also a strong emphasis on research so as to understand the dynamics of the SME sector and develop suitable support systems.

In Kenya , we are making progress, but still have long way to go.  A lot more needs to be done by the govt in order to create the enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive.

Dr Ndemo, we entrepreneurs in the BPO sector are looking forward to the day when government will outsource various processes such as digitisation of the millions of records in the various govt departments. This will go a long way in encouraging the growth of the fledgling BPO sector in Kenya .

Peres Were

From: kictanet-bounces+pwere=cascadegl.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+pwere=cascadegl.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Shem Ochuodho
Sent: 12 June 2008 15:27
To: pwere at cascadegl.com
Cc: New Vision List; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Fw: Re: [NewVisionKenya] Voiceless 'KnowledgeWorkers'

Daktari,

Many thanks for sharing additional examples of the practical challenges our entrepreneurs face. Would be nice to find a catalogue of those impediments, and even more importantly, the interventions (if any) being undertaken to stem them.

Best rgrds,
Shem

--- On Wed, 6/11/08, R. O. Marwanga <rom105 at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: R. O. Marwanga <rom105 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: {Disarmed} [kictanet] Fw: Re: [NewVisionKenya] Voiceless 'Knowledge Workers'
To: bitange at jambo.co.ke , NewVisionKenya at yahoogroups.com
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>, "New Vision List" <newvisionkenya at yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2008, 2:01 PM

Shem & others: Good to see this dabate on ICT and encouraging to see Dr. Ndemo participating. I just have two comments regarding entrepreurship in Kenya and the govt's role. a) First, as an entrepreneur myself and as one interested in developing entrepreurship in Kenya , my experience has been both positive and negative in the past several months. First, Kenya is excellent in terms of availability of human resources. The attitude towards taking risk is somewhat positive and there are some efforts, albeit disjointed, towards creating an environment for risk-taking. Howeever, on the gov't side both central and local, I find the attitude towards entrepreneurship negative, almost hostile despite all the pronouncements to the contrary. A comparison here will show why: I have been running a consulting firm in the US since 1998 and all that time, I have never seen a local govt official or IRS come to knock on my door about
 taxes or anything like that. Besides the initial registration fees which is minimal, I simply declare to IRS and pay taxes if any, each quarter. But in Kenya , I set up my office last October and since then City Council Askaris & people from KRA have come to my office demanding one thing or another! I have had to pay exhobitant fees for which I cannot see what I get back, for example KSH 20K annual City license fee! I get similar horror stories all the time from my students in an Executive MBA class at Strathmore, many of whom run their own businesses. There is clearly a need for change of attitude on the govt side towards promoting entrepreneurship which I find lacking right now.  b) Second, it is my opinion that a gov't has the role of both helping to create capacity and also participating in the creation and use of capacity, particularly in capital intensive areas like ICT. For example the US gov't creates
 capacity, helps others to create capacity and is one of the biggest consumers of the capacity created. Hope this is the direction Kenya is moving.

Thanks

R. O. Marwanga                

--- On Wed, 6/11/08, Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho@ yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho@ yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: {Disarmed} [kictanet] Fw: Re: [NewVisionKenya] Voiceless 'Knowledge Workers'
To: bitange at jambo. co.ke
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists. kictanet. or.ke>, "New Vision List" <newvisionkenya@ yahoogroups. com>
Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2008, 10:49 AM

Bw PS,
Once again allow me to say it is commendable to see you being 'responsive' online.
On ICT development, I don't think what we are complaining of is 'inaction'; No. There are lots of good 'projects' happening. Our/My concern is that they are not coherent, or rather there is no overarching 'comprehensive' or 'integrated' plan portraying the 'bigger picture' than individual projects or initiatives do. Examples of African countries with such comprehensive Masterplans include Rwanda , Tunisia and Mozambique . If we have (such) a master plan, I am not aware, and I would be more than delighted to see it. Otherwise, good strategies like that for the BPO's, the E-Govt Strategy, etc, should only be sub-components of the 'Masterplan' .
As for lacking entrepreneurs, am not sure I entirely agree, either. Once again allow me to contend that Kenya has got some of the most 'enterprising' human resources. What they lack are opportunities and an enabling environment. I know some strides have been made, but we still have a long way to go. Just for instance, Tanzania gives up to 15% advantage to local firms when they bid for Govt projects (or so am told). Unless Kenyan rules have changed, I don't think such a provision exists. But that's just one area for improving the environment. There are several others, some specific to ICT, others of a more general nature. Developing a 'Masterplan' would create an opportunity for sufficient engagement with diverse 'Stakeholders' (including 'Professionals' and 'Entrepreneurs' ) that would unearth more comprehensively areas of improvement that the ICT private sector requires to fly.
Finally, I don't think Govt can run away from building, creating and utilizing capacity. Of course it doesn't do it alone; it does it in collaboration with other players. But it is incumbent, as a starting point, upon Govt to come up with a comprehensive 'Human Capacity Development and Utilization Plan'. And rumour has it one could be in the offing; if that is true, that would be great. If the rumour is not true, then something needs to be done about it.
My 2 cents worth.
Warmest rgrds,
Shem

--- On Wed, 6/11/08, bitange at jambo. co.ke <bitange at jambo. co.ke> wrote:

From: bitange at jambo. co.ke <bitange at jambo. co.ke>
Subject: Re: {Disarmed} [kictanet] Fw: Re: [NewVisionKenya] Voiceless 'Knowledge Workers'
To: shemochuodho@ yahoo.com
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists. kictanet. or.ke>
Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2008, 8:07 AMDear Shem/Lucy,Reading the write up here, I concluded that you are really behind on what ishappening in the ICT landscape that I cannot do justice by using a balckberryto respond.  However, in summary there are focused strategies to grow our sector.  2006 abpo strategy that has given rise to part of vision 2030.  Aggressive ICTinfrastructure development.  Complete legal and regulatory framework that iswaiting for Parliament to do their part.  Centers of excellency to buildcapacity created.  Many more projects being implemented by th ICT Board and yesthere is a master plan.  What we neen now are entrepreneurs.  Although government can help buildcapacity, it cannot create them.  This requires both role models and ability totake risk.  We must also remove the negative attitude whereby we approach allissues from a negative angle.    Asante.  NdemoSent from
 my BlackBerry®  Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho@ yahoo.com> wrote:  An edited version of the article below appeared in today's edition of theStandard.   Rgrds, Shem   ------ Where is the Voice of the Kenyan ICT Professional? -----   

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