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Kenya ICT Board- seeking to tap huge potential in outsourcing world

Kenya has entered the new decade with technology taking lead in driving the economy.

Over the last decade, ICT has outperformed all other sectors growing at an average of 20 percent per year.

The benefits of ICT are starting to be felt in other sectors, laying ground for exponential growth in the next decade.

The passing of the new constitution, continued strong macroeconomic policies, and a favourable regional environment have created a new positive economic momentum.

Over the last three decades Kenya has experienced only two short episodes when economic growth exceeded five percent and was sustained for at least three consecutive years: 1986-88 and 2004-2007.

But Kenya is again at the verge of experiencing another growth spurt. Already the country closed the last decade with economy growth standing at 6.1 percent. This is projected to keep growing in the new decade.

According to Eunice Kariuki said Kenya ICT Board is driving proactively Key Sector developments including content grants whose second release is in early 2011, development of BPO/ITES center of excellence whose implementation is at advanced stage, incubation centers and software certification.

“All of these are at very advanced stages
and they are paramount to scaling capacity to supply the ICT sector with guaranteed high quality talent and innovations,” said Kariuki.

Already Kenya’s Ministry of Information is partnering with the World Bank to build centres of excellence to bridge the industry skills gap and improve employment opportunities.

This is government’s effort to take the burden of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) from the private sector.

The endeavor to set up a BPO Centre of Excellence with World Bank assistance is seen as a move by the government to provide a stimulus to the BPO industry in the country that is supposed to generate over 80,000 employment opportunities and secure a part of over 2,000 graduates in computer science and technology churned out by the local universities annually.

 

The Center of excellence will have two key objectives: training of Kenyan trainers specific to the BPO/ITES industry and, training of students for employment in the BPO/ITES industry. The vision for the Center is that it will eventually become a regional training hub for the BPO/ITES sector catering to training needs in the Africa region.

 

Presently, the Kenyan BPO industry generates revenue worth $5 million (Sh400 million) and jobs from the outsourcers in the United States contribute around 80 per cent of the total volume.

 

In 2009, a number of BPOs benefited from satellite bandwidth subsidy to make them competitive in the global industry.

The World Bank pledged to fund the Kenya Transparency and Communication Infrastructure Project (KTCIP) at a tune of Sh7.8 billion, a joint initiative by the Government of Kenya that is among other things, supporting the creation of digital villages in rural and urban areas and accelerating provision of e-government services as well as facilitate connectivity for the country’s emerging vibrant business process outsourcing industry.

This project is seeking to harness the vast untapped potential of the rural sector by making ICTs more accessible and affordable to the wider population through the development and utilization of ICT facilities in the rural areas.

Kenya bags global award

Kenya has been featuring prominently in the ICT world and in March 2010 it bagged a GSM International Award.

The much-coveted Government Leadership Award was presented to Kenya’s Minister for Information and Communication, Hon. Samuel Poghisio, at the 15th annual Global Mobile Awards during the Mobile World Congress in Spain, Barcelona.

Poghisio said that Kenya is investing in mobile and ICT tools that will deliver modern and innovative socio-economic solutions for all citizens.

Kenya was awarded for deploying an open policy making environment and for creating conducive investment opportunities for the communications sector.

Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) was also recognized for its role in facilitating the landing of the two fibre optic cables TEAMs and Seacom in 2009.

Kenya is among the world’s pioneer in the mobile money transfer domain with over nine million mobile money subscribers.

It is in this context that Safaricom’s mobile money transfer service, M-PESA, was awarded the ‘Best Mobile Money Service’ during the GSM Association’s Mobile Awards Ceremony.

Airtel’s Zap money transfer service was equally awarded the ‘Mobile Money for the Unbanked’. This new category recognizes the innovative mobile banking around the world that offers low cost financial services to millions of people in countries where traditional financial services are not within easy reach.

GSM Association CEO, Rob Conway, reiterated that the government leadership award acknowledges the leadership of the Kenya Government and its determination to improve the lives of Kenyans by making access to mobile broadband and ICTs more available and affordable.

With the projections on the innovative uptake of ICTs by Kenyans, 2011 promises to be a year of exponential growth in the sector.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jamrats 511 days ago