Business Daily (Nairobi)
Geoffrey Irungu
10 September 2007
The newly launched Information and Communication Technology (ICT) board has started an aggressive campaign to market Kenya as the next outsourcing destination in the world after India.
The heavily funded board plans to use the Sh8 billion loan it received from the World Bank in May to expand use of existing bandwidth, increase capacity for outsourcing as well as digitise the country's 210 constituencies.
People familiar with the project said its key objectives include digitisation of company and land registries and giving pensioners access to information on their accounts.
To promote Kenya as an outsourcing destination, the board plans to roll out policies that will cut the cost of international broadband Internet, while extending the geographical reach of broadband network in the country.
Mr Paul Kukubo, the ICT board chairman, told Business Daily that the mandate of the board is to advise implementation of ICT programmes, marketing of Kenya as an outsourcing destination as well as administering the World Bank grant.
Mr Kukubo, who was previously the CEO of Internet solutions firm 3-Mice Interactive Media, said disbursement of the loan within five months of application had enabled the government to speed up the establishment of the board.
The loan is not due for payment until 2017, but comes with conditions such as hiring of key personnel, including a project coordinator, to manage it.
Managers of the fund should include a financial management specialist, a procurement specialist, a governance official, and a monitoring and evaluation specialist.
Mr Victor Kyalo, a project co-ordinator, also serves as the deputy managing director. Mr Kyalo has worked with Kenic - an outfit that registers Internet domains. While offering the loan, the World Bank said it had recognised progress the country had made in reforming its telecommunications sector. Key reform measures include liberalisation of data and voice market, restructuring of Telkom Kenya, ongoing preparation of telecoms legislation as well as competitive award of operator licences. The fund, which is intended to raise the level of ICT penetration, has four components. The first, of $15m, will involve formulation of a legal and policy regime that regulates e-transaction, privacy and data protection, intellectual property rights, capacity building and generating content for the digital villages initiative, among others.
Proper pricing
The second component that has been allocated $63 million is expected to help enhance connectivity through purchase of broadband capacity in regional and national networks for specific user groups such as universities, schools and technical colleges as well as the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
The value of the BPO industry is expected to rise to Sh10 billion annually when the project is fully implemented, according to Information and Communications permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo.
Dr Ndemo said Kenya could even wrestle business away from BPO heavyweights such as India.
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