[kictanet] [Skunkworks] SAP and Kenya ICT Board Partner on Skills Develeopment

[Evans Ikua]

Well, if I was German and SAP was German and the money would end up in
Germany, I would think the same way.

On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 12:43 PM, Andrea Bohnstedt <
andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com> wrote:

> Honestly, guys - maybe it's because it's Friday and I'm a bit
> undersugared, but what's the issue here? SAP will train 100 underprivileged
> students in what I can see are marketable technical skills that will give
> them a good foundation for a career. Boo!
>
> 100 out of, what - tens of thousands of kids? Hundreds of thousands of
> kids? *Of course* this will not fix either youth employment or the state of
> Kenya's ICT industry over night. It also won't fix the fact that Rhapta
> Road seems to be crumbling, but then again, it doesn't have to. Doesn't
> stop anyone from pursuing any other initiatives in the areas everyone put
> forward. Well done, SAP, I think!
>
> On 21 September 2012 12:37, Evans Ikua <ikua.evans at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Mwendwa, this is where we have a disconnect. To build onto what you have
>> pointed out, the Government would do good to actively support the
>> development of the capacity of local developers who can be able to extend
>> and develop local or open source ERPs, and any other systems. My big
>> question here to Paul is, how much money do we lose in forex buying SAP and
>> all the other software licenses annually, as a country? Can we get figures
>> of how much a standard SAP implementation costs? How many are there in the
>> country? How much of that money stays in the country and how much goes to
>> Germany? Aren't we better off investing in our own developer skills so that
>> we can keep some of this money within the country (and maybe pay teachers
>> better)?
>>
>> The reason why rich countries stay rich is because they have positive
>> balances of payments. A poor country like Kenya has a negative balance of
>> payments. This basically tells us that we need to import as little as
>> possible, and export as much as possible. Then vision 2030 becomes easier
>> to achieve.
>>
>> Countries like Malaysia, Brazil, UK and Germany have come to this
>> realization. They know what is in their best business interest and so they
>> actively support local developer capacities, as opposed to having software
>> engineers whose work is just to install packaged software from shiny discs.
>>
>> Brain drain? When we have a situation like I have just mentioned above,
>> the really good developers will never have an incentive to stay in a
>> country where all they do is install software. They will soon emigrate to
>> Germany (or Silicon Valley) where they can be employed by SAP to get
>> involved in the exciting world where they can actually do the development.
>> With open source, they would stay in Kenya and still get to develop
>> exciting applications
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 11:50 AM, lordmwesh <lordmwesh at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> This is a great debate, but we should not trivialize what the ICT
>>> board is trying to do in helping build local SAP developers. Any
>>> movement forward is welcomed.
>>>
>>> Although Great developers don't need any baby sitting, they will move
>>> and work with any platform may it be proprietary closed or Free open
>>> source.
>>>
>>> The debate of what software an enterprise should use should be decided
>>> by the investors, after analysing all risks involved.
>>>
>>> SAP has seen an opportunity to develop local talent, great.
>>>
>>> Anybody who feels like me that local developers should also be taught
>>> to integrate Open source ERPs should sponsor them too. A lot of talk
>>> and no walk will not help anybody.
>>>
>>> Kudos KICTB, Any movement forward is welcomed.
>>> ______________________
>>> Mwendwa Kivuva
>>> For
>>> Business Development
>>> Transworld Computer Channels
>>> Cel: 0722402248
>>> twitter.com/lordmwesh
>>> transworldAfrica.com | Fluent in computing
>>> kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *----------------------------------------------------
>> Kind Regards,
>> Evans Ikua,*
>> lanetconsulting.com,
>> lpi-eastafrica.org,
>> ict-innovation.fossfa.net,
>> Skype: @ikuae
>> Cell: +254-722-955831
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt>
> Publisher
> +254 720 960 322
>
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-- 
*----------------------------------------------------
Kind Regards,
Evans Ikua,*
lanetconsulting.com,
lpi-eastafrica.org,
ict-innovation.fossfa.net,
Skype: @ikuae
Cell: +254-722-955831
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