[kictanet] [strategic inefficiency is what creates a large number jobs] Jobs fall to 6 year low despite GDP "boom".

Thu May 2 10:40:17 EAT 2019

Patrick

How would you propose this works without starting to discuss data
protection and privacy issues? To quote you:-

"...LOCAL Web agencies could be easily procured (paid and empowered) to
help provide *access to information* (up to date wb portals:)"

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
<http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

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Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
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organizations that I work with.

On Wed, May 1, 2019 at 1:56 PM S.M. Muraya via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Last night, on Citizen TV, there was a back and forth discussion between a
> Senator and the Health CS, in which BOTH were addressing misinformation
> (leading to unused if not misused funds).
> As it were, both were/are victims of misinformation.
>
> This could be simply addressed if "cottage" industries such as LOCAL Web
> agencies could be easily procured (paid and empowered) to help provide *access
> to information* (up to date wb portals:)
>
> On Fri, Apr 26, 2019 at 4:50 PM Patrick A. M. Maina via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>> Dear listers,
>>
>> In order to create jobs, the government should move away from policies
>> that focus on increasing efficiency to those that are strategically
>> inefficient.
>>
>> Examples:
>>
>> 1. SMEs, e. g. cottage industries, are inefficient - compared to larger
>> factories, but they can create exponentially more jobs with less tax
>> breaks. Most SMEs also spend all their revenues in Kenya, while promoting
>> other dependent MSMEs.. unlike large corporations which tend to move funds
>> abroad for different reasons (tax, asset protection, hedging, dividends
>> etc).
>>
>> 2. We always see donors (especially, I believe, WB & IMF if I recall
>> correctly) always pushing govt to redirect expenditure from recurrent/wages
>> to "development"/infrastructure (clearly in their own interest as assets
>> can be securitized for their own peace of mind, and more debt can be
>> incurred in dev projects). So they push developing countries to reduce
>> manpower in critical strategic sectors of the economy (less teachers,
>> doctors etc) or to pay below-market wages.
>>
>> What is the impact of such financial efficiency measures? Do they not
>> care that the employees they keep asking to be retrenched are real people
>> with families? Do they not care that manpower reduction means our children
>> get the worst teacher:pupil or doctor:patient or police:civillian ratios?
>>
>> Such recommendations lead to massive hidden costs downstream that cannot
>> be attributed (e.g. low quality education, poor healthcare, increased
>> insecurity due to overloaded+underpaid workers). It just looks like we have
>> endless problems of incompetence but it is not by accident... we follow
>> "weaponised advice", designed to keeps us poor.
>>
>> Efficiency efforts should be limited to enabling high impact service
>> delivery (optimized processes) not financial efficiency.
>>
>> Government should find ways/tactical excuses to ignore callous and
>> unethical requests/pressures for cold blooded fiscal efficiency.
>>
>> Public sector Performance Contract targets need to be linked to a basket
>> of grassroots metrics that reflect the general quality of life for the
>> ordinary population (besides GDP, Inflation, NSE Index & exchange rate).
>> This can be presented in dashboard format on eCitizen so that wanjiku can
>> see what is happening, hold officials to account for not delivering and be
>> motivated to support such initiatives (but the data must be *real* to avoid
>> risk of future backlash).
>>
>> Our "missing middle" problem (i.e. a tiny middleclass) needs to be
>> addressdd. It exists because government incentives for business have
>> focused mainly on Micro enterprises which are too inefficient to be
>> sustainable, and large corporations that are too efficient to fill the jobs
>> gap (and too demanding - always asking for endless concessions just to
>> maintain status quo).
>>
>> If you track current incentives given to large corporations and account
>> for all outflows and hidden costs (many of these corporations are the
>> architects of grand corruption in the country) - you will see a MASSIVE NET
>> LOSS / WEALTH EXTRACTION directly attributable to corporate activities
>> (e.g. encouraging harphazard spending, lobbying for bad laws or poor
>> incentives).. despite the appearance of "gains" on simplistic paper reports
>> that ignore the full impact.
>>
>> A thriving middle class (people who are not rich and not poor - with
>> ability to buy a car, spend regularly on mid-level leisure and even save
>> for luxury spending) is what ends poverty and drives a strong economy.
>>
>> Small and Medium-sized Enterprises SME are the key to a thriving middle
>> class and rapid, large scale jobs creation. They tend to lean towards
>> formality, will often have more educated founders, are inefficient because
>> of scale - but not overly so as to be unsustainable like Micro enterprises,
>> and a few will have potential to grow into mega corporations.
>>
>> De-risked MSEs are what attracts high quality FDI in the form of venture
>> capital. So rather than pitch tax breaks to global investors, the
>> government should pitch de-risked high potential small enterprises (the way
>> Israel and some EU countries are doing) whose business model has been
>> proven in order to attract capital to scale up the businesses.
>>
>> The reality of Tax incentives to big corporations is that they only
>> cannibalize the treasury - and these same corporations will do everything
>> they can to minimize local expenditure (even furniture is imported yet we
>> have skilled carpenters), and extract wealth in all manner of ways (e.g.
>> transfer pricing).
>>
>> Most jobs offered by large factories are low level, while skilled jobs
>> (r&d, conceptualization, design, development) will be outsourced with the
>> (false) excuse that Kenyans are not competent. In reality they just want to
>> prevent HIGH VALUE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER so that locals don't build indigenous
>> alternatives.
>>
>> I know some of the things I write are not supposed to be said because it
>> will spoil some lucrative plunder parties.. but I alsonknow many of you
>> know what I am saying is TRUE because you have seen it being done, heard
>> about it or (God forbid) participated in it .
>>
>> This habit of taming monsters by feeding them with our kids is becoming
>> too much and has to be called out for what it is.
>>
>> The youth are our children. It is our duty to create an enabling
>> ecosystem framework that attracts opportunities and truly rewards them for
>> innovation.
>>
>> We need a Kenyan Steve Jobs or Bill Gates who own their own companies -
>> rather than have them and their ideas gobbled up by monopolistic dinosaur
>> corporations that want to suppress their enterpreneurial dreams supressed
>> in order to delay, the next wave of disruptive innovations. We need
>> hundreds of winning case studies - not tens of mostly foreign owned
>> startups (not that it's a bad thing to have foreign ownership, the key
>> thing is that, given our history of suppressed esteem, our youth
>> desperately need role models they can relate to so that they can start
>> BELIEVING in themselves).
>>
>> We can't just tell youth to be job creators.. that's like telling a
>> starving person to go find food. If they knew how - or where, they would
>> not be starving.
>>
>> The REAL reason we tell the youth to employ themselves - yet we have not
>> created an enabling framework - is because they have caught us napping and
>> we want to deflect responsibility.
>>
>> "We" means anyone over 35 years old whether in privage sector or
>> Government. Our parents didn't give us a gift to keep (the opportunities we
>> enjoyed), they gave us a BATON to pass on in a long term RELAY RACE.
>>
>> Did you drop your baton (I did too)? Pick it up. Ignore the naysayers.
>> Start running.
>>
>> Link:
>>
>>
>> https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/Formal-jobs-fall-to-6-year-low-despite-GDP-boom/539546-5088750-nra671z/index.html
>>
>> Warmest regards,
>> Patrick.
>>
>> Patrick A. M. Maina
>> [Cross-domain Innovator | Public Policy Analyst - Indigenous Innovations]
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>
>
> --
> SMM
>
> *"Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one
> who takes a city." Prov 16:32*
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>
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