Thanks Paul, This is a very useful note especially regarding the realities on the ground.<div><br></div><div>Going by your notes and those of the PS, we seem to have a big case for deliberately promoting entrepreneurship as a solution to most of our economic challenges (rural connectivity included). It also appears to go beyond MOIC - perhaps to the Vision 2030 guys and beyond.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Best Regards.<br><div><br><div><br></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 1:56 PM, Paul Kukubo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pkukubo@ict.go.ke">pkukubo@ict.go.ke</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Edith and listers<div><br></div><div>Thanks for your comments. </div><div><br></div><div>The debate on Pasha has been a very interesting one. It is not about whether or not to provide access to grassroots communities. That is a clearly stated government policy, and something we all agree on. Indeed the new constitution mandates this. </div>
<div><br></div><div>The Pasha debate within the Kenya ICT Board has been about HOW to create a financially and socially sustainable operating model. </div><div><br></div><div>The Kenya ICT Board has been around the country and provided training to would be Pasha managers, some of who are already in business. We have reviewed their business plans. Some make sense and some don't. That is just the way it is. One would expect varying degrees of maturity as the Pasha Centres get deployed over the next few years.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Our studies have indicate that for many rural areas, people cant make money providing just connectivity. And providing internet access without other services would not meet community needs anyway. They have to have a business that meets community information and service needs- in a sense a bouquet of services.</div>
<div><br></div><div>However, our modelling has proven that even in the most remote areas, there is a business case for content services trade and connectivity and we are therefore confident that if entrepreneurs in those areas were provided with assistance. We felt that this modelling reduced the risk of failure in the implementation of the same. Indeed, the cases of failure of these types of projects elsewhere enriched our experiences.</div>
<div><br></div><div>As an illustration, If you charge Kshs 1 per minute (which is the current rate countrywide in cybers) for even ten straight hours a day that would earn you Kshs 600. per day. If you had borrowed to purchase that computer and printer and fax machine plus paid for the software etc the business cash flows must pay for that. What businesses can charge for connectivity is reducing as wholesale prices fall further in line with government policy of increasing access.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The issue for the ICT Board has been to ensure that this project creates entrepreneurs in rural communities who can leverage internet access as part of their business offering. In an earlier email I detail areas we have looked at.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The reality on the ground is that there are many cyber cafes in towns across Kenya where one can decent internet access. The improved connectivity situation has made it easier for many to guarantee better services. Indeed most Kenyans across connect to the internet will get access via a mobile modem and mostly one bought from Safaricom. Many cybers run on mobile modems. </div>
<div><br></div><div>We had substantial delays internally in crafting this strategy and getting the requisite approvals from the World Bank on various aspects of this project. While this happened we were lucky to partner with CISCO, IBM global teams to learn from their experiences around the world on this. We have received many proposals from various bodies to partner on this project which we welcome. As an example in the early days we even explored turning each PASHA center into an IT training center. This decision would have to be made by the entrepreneur being guided by what can sustain his business.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Initially many thought that the government was going to build physical Pasha Centres from ground up. Now many are clearer that the model is about empowering communities through their own entrepreneurs. The Kenya ICT Board will facilitate as much government content and providing training, technical support and and other capacity support within the defined scope as the Pasha Manager needs. Indeed some may end providing digitization and other services to their local counties.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I hope this sheds some more light.</div><div><br></div><div>regards</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div class="im">Paul Kukubo<br>Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board<br>PO Box 27150 - 00100<br>
Nairobi, Kenya<br>
<br>12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street<br><br>Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960 <br>
Fax: +254 20 2211962<br>website: <a href="http://www.ict.go.ke" target="_blank">www.ict.go.ke</a><br>local content project: <a href="http://www.tandaa.co.ke" target="_blank">www.tandaa.co.ke</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tandaakenya" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/tandaakenya</a><br>
twitter:@tandaaKENYA<br>BPO Project: www. <a href="http://doitinkenya.co.ke" target="_blank">doitinkenya.co.ke</a><br>Digital Villages Project: <a href="http://www.pasha.co.ke" target="_blank">www.pasha.co.ke</a><br><br>
<br>personal contacts<br>_______________<br>
<br>Cell: + 254 717 180001<br><br><br>skype: kukubopaul<br>googletalk: pkukubo<br>personal blog: <a href="http://www.paulkukubo.co.ke" target="_blank">www.paulkukubo.co.ke</a><br>personal twitter: @pkukubo<br><br><br>____________________<br>
Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub<br><br>Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment <br>
<br><br></div><div><div></div><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 6:47 PM, Edith Adera <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:eadera@idrc.or.ke" target="_blank">eadera@idrc.or.ke</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma" color="#000000">Paul,</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma">I'm glad that we are moving towards realizing this dream. We need to move from "will do" mode to "have done" mode!</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma">We look forward to the launch and the 90 days after to see this realized (I trust we will get frequent updates).</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma">Just some quick observations:-</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma">*You mention that KICTB will "provide a technical consultant to support the technical set up and management" and "provide support for Management of the Pasha Community portal to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing among
Pasha managers" - here's is where I would suggest strong bottom-up empowerment of communities to technically manage their own networks and also to develop and manage local content that can feed into the larger portal following agreed standards. Uganda's RCDF
got consultants to develop district portals - which looked very beautiful, but alas they were soon "stale sites" as they were not updated frequently...there was no community buy-in...a bottom-up approach to empowering people to develop and own their content!
This was a big lesson we learnt with the RCDF.</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma">*other services could include interactive community-radio hooked to the network and local VOIP services.</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma">Finally, why not consider a range of banks? and MFIs? why Family Bank?</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma"></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma">Edith</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Tahoma"></font> </div>
<div>
<div><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%">
<b><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%"><span>________________
</span></span></b><span style="color:black">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%"><font color="#000000"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%"><font color="#000000">Edith
Ofwona Adera</font> </span></b><span style="color:black"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%"><font color="#000000">Senior Program Specialist
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#002060;line-height:115%"><font color="#000000">ICT4D Program and Climate Change & Water Program</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%"><font color="#000000">International
Development Research Centre | Centre de recherches pour le développement international</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:10pt;color:#002060;line-height:115%"><font color="#000000">Regional Office for Eastern
and Southern Africa</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%"><font color="#000000">Tel:
+254202713160 | Fax/Téléc: +254202711063 | Skype: edithadera</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%"><a href="mailto:eadera@idrc.or.ke" target="_blank">eadera@idrc.or.ke</a>
| </span><a href="http://www.idrc.ca/" target="_blank"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%">www.idrc.ca</span></a><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%">
| </span><a href="http://www.crdi.ca/" target="_blank"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size:10pt;color:#1f497d;line-height:115%">www.crdi.ca</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;line-height:115%"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size:10pt"><img alt="" hspace="0" align="baseline" border="0"></span></p></span><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size:10pt"></span>
</font></div>
</div>
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<font face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b> kictanet-bounces+eadera=<a href="http://idrc.or.ke" target="_blank">idrc.or.ke</a>@<a href="http://lists.kictanet.or.ke" target="_blank">lists.kictanet.or.ke</a> [kictanet-bounces+eadera=<a href="http://idrc.or.ke" target="_blank">idrc.or.ke</a>@<a href="http://lists.kictanet.or.ke" target="_blank">lists.kictanet.or.ke</a>] On Behalf Of Paul Kukubo [<a href="mailto:pkukubo@ict.go.ke" target="_blank">pkukubo@ict.go.ke</a>]<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 07 December 2010 10:25<br>
<b>To:</b> Edith Adera<div><br>
<b>Cc:</b> KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<br>
</div><b>Subject:</b> [kictanet] Update on Pasha Centres<br>
</font><br>
</div><div><div></div><div>
<div></div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Listers</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Wingdings"><span>Ø<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Kenya ICT Board will facilitate the establishment of digital access centers, to be known as Pasha Centres across the country.
</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Wingdings"><span>Ø<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Facilitation will take the following form</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>An Entrepreneurs will obtain a loan from Family Bank for up to a maximum of Kshs 3M to set-up or expand and existing digital access centre.</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Kenya ICT Board will provide a technical consultant to support the technical set up and management.</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Branding and communication support in order to manage the Pasha Brand and drive consumer interest and usage.</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Management of the Pasha Community portal to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing among Pasha managers.</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Continuous Training and skills development for Pasha Owners.</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Liaison with public sector and local and international content providers who may want to access the public through the Pasha network.</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in"> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Wingdings"><span>Ø<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span><b>Pasha Centres will provide a variety of services that could include the following:</b></p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Internet access, including serving as wifi hotspot providers for the area.</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Training and educational material provision</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Mobile and agency banking</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Other retail services</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Money transfer services</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Government services</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Jobs bureau</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Supply chain facilitation including assisting retailers and wholesalers with IT needs</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Technology support centres for the region</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Tourism support</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>NGO Liaison support</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Data collection for government, NGOs and private sector</p>
<p style="margin-left:1in">
<span style="font-family:'Courier New'"><span>o<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Business Process outsourcing and data entry services</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="margin-left:0in"><b>The Plan</b></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Wingdings"><span>Ø<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Monday 24<sup>th</sup> January 2011, public launch of Pasha Project.</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Wingdings"><span>Ø<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Target date for first disbursement of loan is 90 days from launch date. The disbursing bank will require 90 days to review applicants and conclude initial loan disbursements.</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Wingdings"><span>Ø<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>Disbursements will be made to entrepreneurs who fulfill agreed conditions and don’t necessarily have to be among those that had received Pasha training prior. Kenya ICT Board in 2009 and 2010 had conducted nationwide 3 week training of
1000 people in business management, entrepreneurship, marketing, basic accounting and technical management (a starter-kit) to prepare potential pasha managers to run Pasha centre.</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Wingdings"><span>Ø<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>The agreement with the bank is to ensure we disburse at least one loan per county within the year. Our eventual target is to have 210 pasha centers, one in each constituency by 2012. We shall asses the appetite and would not be surprised
if the demand for loans exceeds our target.</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Wingdings"><span>Ø<span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman'">
</span></span></span>We shall encourage entrepreneurs to partner with the networks and any other organizations to beef up their business plans in preparation for loan application and to make their businesses more commercially viable.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Mechanics of disbursement </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All applications will be forwarded to family bank for commercial assessment. Family bank and an committee appointed by the Kenya ICT Board will assess the best loan candidates on a set of agreed criteria and award the loan against this
and a sound and verified business plan. We shall be keen to ensure that people don’t push through paper plans for the sake of cash.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">More details will be available on <a href="http://www.ict.go.ke" target="_blank">
www.ict.go.ke</a> and <a href="http://www.pasha" target="_blank">www.pasha</a> .<a href="http://co.ke" target="_blank">co.ke</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
Paul Kukubo<br>
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board<br>
PO Box 27150 - 00100<br>
Nairobi, Kenya<br>
<br>
12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street<br>
<br>
Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960 <br>
Fax: +254 20 2211962<br>
website: <a href="http://www.ict.go.ke" target="_blank">www.ict.go.ke</a><br>
local content project: <a href="http://www.tandaa.co.ke" target="_blank">www.tandaa.co.ke</a>,
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/tandaakenya" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/tandaakenya</a><br>
twitter:@tandaaKENYA<br>
BPO Project: www. <a href="http://doitinkenya.co.ke" target="_blank">doitinkenya.co.ke</a><br>
Digital Villages Project: <a href="http://www.pasha.co.ke" target="_blank">www.pasha.co.ke</a><br>
<br>
<br>
personal contacts<br>
_______________<br>
<br>
Cell: + 254 717 180001<br>
<br>
<br>
skype: kukubopaul<br>
googletalk: pkukubo<br>
personal blog: <a href="http://www.paulkukubo.co.ke" target="_blank">www.paulkukubo.co.ke</a><br>
personal twitter: @pkukubo<br>
<br>
<br>
____________________<br>
Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub<br>
<br>
Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment
<br>
</div>
</div></div></div>
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