The word is positive
No, David, let’s go with the Jua Kali ideas
14Mar2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Author: alkagsMy friend David Ndungu
has started blogging again.
In his latest post, David comments on the PS, Dr. Bitange Ndemo’s remarks on local PC assembly are valid but problematic. He contends that the PS’s long standing remarks that Kenya needs to nurture and grow local PC assembly is a Jua Kali idea – an uncooked idea. He thinks that we should instead focus on the innovative talent that we have (which invariably is software based). He further points out that the service industry including BPO is just rearing to go and that is where our national energies should go.
On the face of it, one would have to agree. As he points out Kenya is at a disadvantage with regard to going into the hardware industry because of various outstanding issues: power and other production costs being foremost in his thinking.
That said, I have to stand opposite him on this one.
My reasons are simple:-
-
Power will always be an issue – not just as a factor of production, but also as a factor of consumption. Even at the most aggressive increments in electrification in Kenya, we cannot using the current ideas for energy production reach 20% more of Kenya than the low electricity penetration than we already have. This will have effects on the number of PCs that we shall produce for the service industry that we want to grow.
We are not the first to be in an unfavorable position with regard to hardware production. Egypt, Nigeria etc notwithstanding, we shall have to do what we need to do to build homegrown PC products that can serve our people adequately. David is right. We would need to prepare ourselves beyond ICT to make ourselves ready for PC assembly. But that then is what we must do. Agree that PC assembly is what we must go for and prepare for it.
- It is not a valid argument to say that Egypt and Nigeria are unable to compete at par with the world in PC assembles without government subsidies – and therefore draw parallels with Kenya. Kenya has shown distinct difference with both these countries with adoption of technology and with its use. Far more than these two – and other – African countries have done. This despite them having access to fibre optic cables and greater FDI than Kenya.
Our potential is vast and we must reach for all of it. Let’s not limit ourselves.
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About Al Kags
Al Kags is a poet and writer based in Nairobi Kenya. He is the Author of the Book - Living Memories (http://living.alkags.com), a collection of true stories narrated to him by ordinary people who lived in the extraordinary times of the 1950s.
As a poet, Al Kags has published the Quarterly Colour Series of Poetry, a series of ebooks since 2009, which have been read by over 1,000,000 people around the world and which are contributed to by people from all over the world.
For his day job, Al Kags is an acclaimed Marketer and project Manager.
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