[kictanet] Update on Pasha Centres from Kenya ICT Board

[Paul Kukubo]

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
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