With the Government evidently determined to ensure Information Communication Technology (ICT) resources are now available in the country, with prominence given to rural areas, a window of opportunity for the jobless youths seems to be beckoning.
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications ICT Master Plan, the Government is planning to establish a Rural ICT Enterprises (RIEs), which will be distributed across the rural areas at constituency level and will provide affordable access to a diversity of ICT services to the surrounding population.
This is happening at a time when the Government released Sh1 billion meant to assist the youth establish their own business ventures. With these initiatives in place among others, the young people, who are the majority, are likely to benefit enormously. Kenya's population is a youthful one, with those between 15-35 years constituting 75 per cent of the country's population, forming the largest source of human resource.
Sector expected to grow significantly
Recently, the Minister for Information and Communications, Mr Mutahi Kagwe, advised the youth who will benefit from the youth fund to consider investing in ICT related fields as they will have good returns on their investment.
This cannot be gainsaid as this is one of the sectors that is anticipated to grow significantly in the near future and become one of the largest employers, especially for young people.
In the ICT Development Expo held in Nairobi last week, most investors expressed willingness to support young entrepreneurs establish businesses related to ICT.
This would be happening as the Government fast tracks the undersea fibre optic link to Fujairah. With the resulting improvement in communication and reduction in cost for data transmission, there will be a corresponding increase in job opportunities.
One reason why the youth stand to gain more is that they are known to be enthusiastic in embracing innovations and as ICT resources spread out across the country, they are likely to be in the lead.
They adapt quickly and are generally quite hungry for information.
Although no substantive studies have been done on this, their large presence in cyber cafes and computer outlets can attest to this. We have also seen them with ostentatious mobile handsets, MP3s and flash disks conspicuously hanging from their pockets in the streets.
ICTs will present new opportunities
The proliferation of ICTs will present new opportunities to the youth. They will be able to use the Internet to access entertainment and news sites and as a personal meeting space through chat programmes.
They will also be able to access education and training opportunities through distance learning or e-learning, which is likely to be cheaper and flexible. This will in return enable them to secure jobs. Digital opportunities will be particularly effective in reaching rural communities that lack large libraries and other educational resources.
Through ICT, curricula can be updated and distributed more effectively. ICT resources will again help the young people engage actively in politics and activism, considering that this is an election year. This can be realised through access to the Internet, availability of media resources, and communication through mobile telephones among others.
This will enable them coordinate their activities, share problems and successes with the youth in the country and the rest of the world. This will permit them to participate in debates on matters affecting the youth both locally and globally. In the long run, democracy and a sense of e-unity will be promoted among the young people.
Livelihood opportunities to be opened up
The youths with high technical skills trained in our pubic universities and middle level colleges across the country also stand to benefit. Majority of them are unemployed and some of those who are employed, are under utilised.
These include people in high skills like software engineering and programming, among others. Those with senior secondary or tertiary educational qualifications can get employment opportunities such as call centers.
Other employment opportunities that are likely to be created by the ICT sector in Kenya include assembly, sale and repair of ICT equipment including computers, television sets, musical instruments, telephones and accessories among others.
The expansion of ICT sector will further see openings in e-commerce, e-government and other related business ventures. This will eventually open significant livelihood opportunities for young people.
At rural areas, entrepreneurship in ICT among the lower income youth will become a reality. For example, they can purchase a public pay phone through a micro-credit programme and earn income by providing low cost calls to others. Further, photocopying and computer related services, including the Internet can be offered.
If what happened following the inauguration of mobile telephony in Kenya is anything to go by, availability of ICT resources especially in rural areas will definitely change the lifestyle of many Kenyans, creating employment opportunities and more so to the youth.
Lack of regulation and clear ICT policy
Further, there will be cut in household burden, with some resources spared for education, health care or even for improvement of nutrition for the whole family.
However, despite these openings, there are challenges that might stand in the way of the youth as they prepare to reap benefits of the ICT boom.
First, the youth generally face discrimination in the labour market with most employers opting to go for experienced and skilled people. This implies that the adults may have an edge over the youth in case of openings in ICT sector.
For the youth to be able to utilise the ICT resources adequately, they must have the requisite skills and training. However, majority of them lack these skills and it is a major challenge. Others are ill trained and they may not meet the requirements of a competitive job market.
There are many computer training schools in the country providing ICT training, particularly to the youth who could not learn such skills at school.
These training centres, which are mainly private, offer different packages to meet the needs of the different range of customers and their training and service needs. However, due to lack of regulation and clear ICT policy, the training they offer is substandard in some cases.
Although the youth can get credit from banks and micro finance institutions, they may not be able to get substantial amounts that can allow them to invest in competitive businesses. Where the banks are ready to give more, they ask for collaterals, which the youth may not have.
Quelle/Source: allAfrika, 19.02.2007
