[kictanet] Article on Digital Villages in the Daily Nation

Wed Aug 31 17:17:23 EAT 2011

Well done.

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 5:00 PM, warigia bowman <warigia at aucegypt.edu>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 at 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
>
>
>
>
>
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