Background
As mentioned by Jeff Aresty, Africa and Kenya in particular is still a long way from affordable internet access to the local ‘mwananchi’(citizen). Kenya has 6 internet gateways. In addition there are 27 internet service providers (ISP) currently. However with this infrastructure, the availability of internet service to the middle class is still not affordable. There is approximately a population of 35,000 (this needs to be researched), nationwide who have internet in their homes. The use of this service is still not easily accessible to the users due to cost.
The greater majority will browse the internet in the offices, if it’s freely available, or use the commercial cyber café’s. This is currently available at 1Ksh per minute.
In order to develop e-commerce in Kenya, we need the service to be affordable to the majority. This majority includes the local ‘mwananchi’, who up to now does not have the culture of buying online. Organizations and individuals still heavily rely on hardcopies of invoices for goods, which are acquired physically as opposed to shopping online. This could be due to the following reasons: not all the sellers with good deals have websites and two, we do not have that culture yet and thirdly, the internet service is not affordable for home consumption.
Developments
We have a few websites with goods that people can buy from. These mainly include gift items that are marketable with the 6 million Kenyans living abroad. The main target market is still not the local Kenyan market, as you can see. The Kenyans abroad include a population that is more familiar with the use of the credit cards and making purchases online. The local market here is still skeptical on the use of online buying and selling.
Some women groups are ahead on this one in that some have websites and have established markets abroad (www.begakwabega.com). A very impressive group of women in one of the slum areas of Nairobi is the Bega kwa Bega project. This group is actually meeting the market needs of baskets, beadwork jewelry, dolls and other fabric items, and availing them to markets in Japan, Canada, USA and Italy. They are running a production unit right there in the slums, all year round. Their goods are seasonal, to meet the needs of their market. What was very impressive is that they make custom orders.
This group Bega kwa Bega, has used some help from the Catholic missionaries working and leaving among the slum dwellers. The missionaries have established partnerships with the markets abroad. However, for this business to flourish as it does, the manager takes two days before he checks his emails. This is usually from a cyber café in town or from cybers in a neighboring estate to the slum. This therefore means taking public transport which is not only cumbersome, but also takes his time away from managing the unit.
Drawbacks
Setting up internet facilities is not only expensive in terms of the capital needed to acquire the equipment, but also a security risk for the equipment, not only in the slum area, but in most places too.
Another issue with this women’s group is that many of these women have been rehabilitated from prostitution and do not have literacy skills, let alone computer literacy. Therefore they rely heavily on the employment of a manager who represents them in trade fairs and liaises with their markets, on their behalf.
Currently the market rate for internet connectivity in the city of Nairobi is 1Ksh per minute. There is a new concept that is selling in Nairobi (before they move to Mombasa) called Popote wireless (www.popotewireless.co.ke). Apart from the availability of a computer in the home, the additional cost to operate with Popote would be the equipment costs of a phone worth 200 dollars, USB and external cables that would cost an additional 70 dollars. To support this service, there is the option of either pre-paid or post paid service. The pre-paid offers internet service at 1Ksh per minute, which is the equivalent of .5995USD cents per hour. For post paid service, unlimited internet service is being offered for Ksh 3,500 or USD 48.6 per month in comparison to almost half of this cost or less in the US.
This would not be viable for the women group in the slums and indeed not affordable to most individuals. The initial target for Popote wireless is Nairobi and then Mombasa. These are the two largest cities. After the concept sells here, they will slowly roll out their services to other parts of the country, just as the mobile phone service providers did.
While the cost is unaffordable to those in the rural areas, it will take time to ever get there since the infrastructure has yet to be set up.
The other alternative to Popote wireless or other ISPs in the rural areas including Telcom Kenya, would be the VSAT technology which is way too expensive.
The question still remains, ‘how can we acquire affordable internet service to the rural areas where most of the cottage industries are located?’ If this is achieved, we will have the rest of the population with access to internet as well.
Some suggestion:
1. We can work with the existing infrastructure nationwide that belongs to the government – Telcom Kenya. The question that arises for Telcom Kenya is whether their service would be profitable in the long run. On the other hand, the small operations such as Popote are in competition with the said Telcom Kenya. Would the two be willing to work together?
The issue therefore is the need for local or international grants that would support telecommunication infrastructure nationwide. Like the women in the slum areas, we need some help in lobbying for this kind of support. This is probably where Senator Obama comes in. While he visited Kenya recently, he made promises to help Kenya where he can.
2. The internet service providers can work towards reducing the cost of email and internet services to the individual consumers and make their money from the advertisers as is the case with yahoo and google.
3. Corporations can work towards reducing their use of office space and operate on virtual space. This will have two-fold benefits: as they provide internet access to their employees in a onetime capital outlay through acquisition of equipment to various parts of the cities, they will reduce the cost of office space. Secondly, they will be involved in community development, since the access will benefit more than just their employees. This is already working in Sudan – UNDP.
Evidently there is a demand for the internet service at all levels. This is evident in the number of cyber cafés located all over in the towns. The cybercafés serve the youth who use them mostly for communication with friends and educational research for those in colleges and universities. Many others need internet for marketing and information, not to mention for the spread of justice as InternetBar is striving to do.
While I surf the internet in the cybercafés, I cannot help but share in the frustration with those pursuing distance education, and a few following up on a purchase of an imported car, etc, when the computers in the cybercafés are either too slow, or do not have all the accessories that one needs in order to work, such as the flash disk ports.
Many a time we endure the inconvenience of using these cybercafés because we cannot afford the same service at the convenience of our homes. As mentioned earlier, having the very facilities in the homes becomes a risk for attracting armed robbers.
The bottom line to all this is the high level of poverty. This is by no means downplaying the progress that the current government has brought about to Kenya, in the last four years. The economy has really improved as is evident to me, having been out of the country for two years. Economic development is sure to improve steadily if we continue in good governance and reduce corruption and poverty to manageable levels.