According to CCK Quarterly Sector Statistics Report for the first quarter of the 2013/14 financial year released on thursday 30th January 2014 there is a drop of internet subscribers in Kenya. The real numbers are not very important but should there be a need this link has more information. Kenya has been lauded as the next tech hub and some other fancy names but I am of the opinion that we should get of this euphoria for a second.
what does it really mean when its said 19 millions kenyans are online? Is this about just being able to obtain a low end smartphone and being able to access facebook and twitter on it? Because this is the case. Alot of people still dont know how to manage their email accounts and its no wonder cyber cafe businesses are always very lucrative even though on a constant decline.
I say to be truly classified as being online, one should have access to the technologies which can help in navigation of the modern workspace. It does not necessarily mean having the super latest technology in terms of smartphones but its starts on having some bit of reliable internet connection. This is as simple as obtaining a GSM modem and one of those old school computers. Its hence essential to have the necessary computer competence skills(not just computer literacy). The modern workplace tools am talking about include: –
-
Instant communication tools such as skype or google hangouts(Webex for the cool guys).
-
work collaboration tools such as dropbox, skydrive, google drive etc
Having access to the above two means that one now can really be said to have access to the internet and hence enjoy a good fraction of what it has to offer. This would open doors to tech innovators to build products targeted to the local audience since they have a real grasp on the internet. So the next time CCK releases its figures on the state of the subscription as I like to call it, one of the recommendations I have is to finds how computer competent are Kenya users are. This will lead to a more practical discussion of how to roll out internet access because just like wealth its only available to a small subset of the population and most of those(leave for us the real techies) only marvel at the speed at which they can pass out opinions on the social networks.