The landing of the fibre optic cable boosted Kenya’s thrust to get a slice of the lucrative outsourcing business. Several months later, Financial Journal’s James Ratemo caught up with Information PS BITANGE NDEMO on the developments in the sector so far
QUESTION: How far is Kenya as regards fibre optic cable connectivity?
A: With the arrival of the undersea optic cables, bandwidth costs are no more a hindrance in doing business. We are currently building on the last mile connectivity, which will be an open access platform. The constraint is to get to people’s homes. Fortunately, we already have many investors working on this front.
Q: On last mile connectivity, what is the progress?
A: The Government has installed more than 5,000Km of fibre countrywide, from Isebania to
Moyale, from Lamu to Lokichoggio, from Garissa to Busia and traversing all the other towns in-between.
Combined with what private investors have done, we have over 20,000km terrestrial cable, criss-crossing the country.
In general, Kenya has several fibre cables forming a formidable network. They include East African Marine System, Teams, Seacom, Eassy, Telkom’s Lion and satellite network.
Q: How far is the rollout of digital villages in the country?
A: Kenya ICT Board is facilitating the establishment of digital access centres, to be known as Pasha (Swahili for information) Centres across the country.
Private investors like Safaricom are also rolling out digital villages across the country to complement Government efforts.
Through Family Bank, the Government grants a loan of up to Sh3 million to an entrepreneur to set up set up a digital centre or expand an existing one.
The Kenya ICT Board is liaising with the public sector and content providers who may want to access the public through the Pasha network.
Information PS says Kenya is on track to transiting into a completely ICT economy. Photo: File/Standard
The board will also provide a consultant to support the technical set up and management. The Board will also offer branding and communication support in order to manage the Pasha Brand and drive consumer interest and usage.
Q: What makes Kenya a preferred destination of
Business Processing and Outsourcing (BPO)?
A. Outsourcing business is the next ‘big thing’ and as a country, we have staged an aggressive marketing campaign as a suitable BPO destination.
Kenya’s highly educated, largely English-speaking population is also a plus for the country.
Kenyans have the right education and the right accent, which is pre-requisite for success in the sector.
The sector has all the opportunities to grow as envisioned in Vision 2030, which identifies ICT as a key pillar for growth with BPO taken as a flagship project.
Q: How have we utilised ICT to cut down the number of licences involved to start a business?
A: So far, digitisation of company registry has made registering a business much faster. Cases of corruption due to manual systems in the company registry, Lands registry and the Judiciary will be a thing of the past as digitisation of all records enters final stages.
Q. Is e-government a reality yet or it is still a pipe dream?
A: E-Government is a reality and has been a reality for more than five years now. There are human resources, systems and structure that support the e-government functions. The website www.e-government.go.ke for instance reveals some of the services on offer and what the Government envisages to achieve by going digital.
The Government of Kenya Shared Services Project is the first step in building a platform to enable the Government to deliver improved services to citizens.
The IT Shared Services Centre will be implemented over a number of years according to the Shared Services Roadmap.
Q: What will the Government achieve by going digital in her services?
A: An IT Shared Services Centre will allow Government to focus on core responsibilities and enable them to operate more efficiently with IT services being provided by a dedicated organisation.
Q. How far is the country from completely shifting from analogue to digital broadcasting?
A. We are on track. By 2012, the country plans to completely switch over to the digital platform ahead of the global deadline of June 2015 spearheaded by the International Telecommunication union.
Kenya is one of the few countries in Africa to embark on migration, having set 2012 as the deadline for the analogue television switch-off.
Source:http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/sports/InsidePage.php?id=2000028497&cid=14
