Strathmore ICT Conference

Prof Meoli Kashorda

Is Kenya's 6.1% GDP growth all due to increased usage of mobile phones? That is the question Prof Meoli Kashorda posed at the University's 8th annual ICT conference held on Saturday, 8th September 2007.

In his keynote address at the beginning of the conference, Mr David Nalo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry observed the 6.1% growth was not due to growth in any economic sector but due to efficiency gains, an observation that seems to support Prof Kashorda's hypothesis.

In his presentation titled 'Measuring ICT Usage in Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Prof Kashorda said he was surprised the government was taking business process out-sourcing so seriously yet studies showed that effective usage of ICT locally could hasten economic growth faster.

He gave the example of taxation where 26% of the cost of airtime is direct tax – 16% VAT and 10% excise duty. He suggested that excise tax on airtime be reduced to 5% in order to increase mobile telephony user base and added that the funds collected from the tax should be used to build rural ICT infrastructure.

Prof Kashorda said the proposed ICT policy is weak as it sets no targets for the policy objectives or indicators for the strategies in the policy.

In his presentation titled 'ICT Graduates and their Placement: Case of Strathmore University', Mr Clement Nyandiere, Dean, Faculty of Information Technology revealed that 76% of SU's IT graduates get employed within six months of completing their degrees and all graduates are placed two years after graduation.

Presenting a paper on doing business with the government, Mr Andrew Limo, Senior Public Relations Officer,
e-Government Secretariat said an E-transaction bill was being drafted. Citing the innovative examples of Safaricom's 'M-Pesa' and Celtel's 'Sokotele', he said he was happy that lack of legislation had not inhibited the use of technology in business.

Other presentations at the conference included Moses Abuoga, Information Technology Manager, Commercial Bank Africa on 'System Security & Fraud Concerns: ICT Interventions in the Banking Sector' and 'ICT in Kenyan Health Sector: a Wider Approach from a Development Partner's Perspective' by Dr. Klaus J Hornetz, Programme Leader, MOH/GTZ Health Sector Programme in Kenya.

Mr Kostja Reim, Partner, Technology & Security Risk Services Ernst & Young talked on 'Outsourcing ICT Services: Trends and Concerns' while Dr Freddie R Acosta, Director, School of Graduate Studies, Strathmore University presented research findings on 'The Kenyan CIO and ICT Director: Roles, Beliefs and Profiles'. The study found out among other things that there are no women heading large ICT units in Kenya.

Dr Eric Rop, Deputy Director, East Africa Training Centre, Huawei Technologies (Kenya) Co. Ltd talked about 'Technology Trends and industry interventions: Case of Communications Technologies'.

Over 600 stakeholders in the ICT sector drawn from academia, industry and government attended the conference which was preceded by an academic seminar held on Friday, 8th September.

Presentations made at the conference can be found here: http://www.strathmore.edu/itconference/2007/