Big guns running after the mobile apps business

From mobile banking, SMS chatting to stock market updates and sharing photos through mobile phones, the catalogue of mobile applications in Africa seems to be growing by the day. Thanks to the mobile phone penetration which has heavily outstripped PC penetration, availability of affordable bandwidth and the demand to do more than voice and text on the mobile phone.

The annual growth rate in mobile subscribers in Africa in 2007 was more than 40%, with more than 80 million new subscribers. Increased mobile penetration boosts economic activity, and recent studies show that increase in mobile penetration can lead to a one to 5% increase in the annual growth rate in a country's GDP.

A new report assessing m-content in Uganda and India by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO reveals that the demand for services is not being fully met. The report also shows that, in the future, healthcare and job-related services will top the list of in-demand services in Uganda, while internet over mobile, remittances and m-banking may also be in high demand in the coming years.

This unmet demand and potential in mobile application development space in Africa has been attracting attention of the big boys. In the last year, both Ericcson and Nokia, who are undoubtedly global market leaders, have made significant investments in an effort to tap into this potential.

Ericcson is establishing Innovation Centers in sub-Saharan Africa to develop mobile applications with a special focus on meeting the needs of poor and rural populations. The initiative focuses on solutions in health, education, agriculture and small business development.

The Ericsson Innovation Centers will include three application development hubs, in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. At first, the Innovation Center will concentrate on mobile applications, such as m-health that will enable health workers to gather, monitor and share data on things like births, deaths and epidemics, and to use smart mobile decision support tools in their daily work.

Other applications will relate to education, agriculture, business development, finance, government services and the overall improvement of communication capabilities.
Nokia, on the other hand supports the mobile-application labs at Makerere University, Uganda and the University of Nairobi, Kenya. These are the two oldest Universities in the region. The labs allow the universities to attract outsourced work from the corporate sector for mobile-applications development.

Nokia has also been working with startups through their "Innovation Challenge" initiative, where they give guidance and support to innovative applications. Through the initiative, start-up companies with the best applications receive support to further develop their applications to sellable applications. The company has also opened up its OVI store to local applications and developers.

And with other companies such as Google and Microsoft having a big presence in the region and eying a piece of this business, the mobile application space is going to get more interesting and competitive. What is interesting though, is that this has attracted a whole new set of developers, most of whom are straight from the university. Possibly because the Universities were the first to invest in skills development through the mobile development labs.

Technology delivers a superb FIFA 2010

As the vuvuzelas die down and everyone goes back to their routine, Dilbagh Gill, head of sport business and FIFA executive relationship at Mahindra Satyam, an Indian-based systems integration firm, has an interesting way of looking at the role of technology at the just concluded football bonanza.

He says technology and IT services are like the goalkeeper in football. No one seems to remember the goals the keeper saves. And the less you hear about the technology behind the event, the back office operations that keep the pictures flowing, the networks running and the communication alive, the better -  it means technology is playing its role effectively.

That could never be so true. One of the unsung heros of the FIFA World Cup 2010 is technology. This is from the event management system that Mahindra Satyam built from the bottom up, the live streaming of matches on the Internet, the social media activities in twitter, facebook and myspace to the crisp pictures that beamed on television sets across the world and watched by millions of football enthusiasts.

For instance, can you remember those overhead pictures that gave you a birds-eye view of the pitch? That was one of the newest innovations in broadcasting at the world cup. The tension cable-harnessed camera dubbed the "Spidercam" was making its World Cup debut. The Spidercam is normally suspended 20 meters above the pitch and capable of being pulled back and forth to provide live, overhead images. This camera was used at four of the 10 tournament venues in South Africa.

The 2010 World Cup?s television coverage used a standard 30 cameras for each match, four more than during the 2006 tournament in Germany, and included two ultra-motion cameras that can record up to 1,000 frames per second to dramatically slow down the action for replays.

Twin-lens 3D cameras were also used at every game, along with "steadicams," which are fitted to the bodies of film crewmembers, and crane-operated cameras at pitch-level. Important matches got two additional cameras: one mounted on a helicopter and a Spidercam. 

Then, the logistics and successful delivery of the event was totally hinged on technology and this is where Gill and his team were involved in. The event management system that Satyam built had several mission critical systems, relating to accreditation, volunteer, event staffing and transport. All these are critical to a delivery of any such event.

Satyam were also responsible for installing a private network connecting event locations, FIFA delegation, staff, the organizing committee and media personnel, as well as claiming oversight of the deployment of IT related equipment. They managed and tracked over 33,000 assets worth a billion dollars, which were loaned to FIFA for the 2010 bonanza.

So, like Gill, I tend to agree that technology is and maybe should remain the hidden hand in delivery of such high quality events ? business or sporting. How I wish FIFA could actually go a step further and utilize this rich technology to assist in curbing refereeing errors. But that?s a story for another day.

As for now, it is my hope that the local organizing committee of the Senior Africa Athletics Championship, which kicks off later in the month will have picked some lessons from the FIFA 2010 experience and that again, technology will deliver another superb experience. This time, in Nairobi.

Let's forget e-Government and embrace m-Government

With mobile device penetration hugely outstripping computer penetration and the increased uptake of mobile Internet in the region, mobile services are quickly emerging as the new frontier in public service transformation. This in essence makes public services more accessible and citizen-centric by extending the benefits of remote delivery of government services and information to those who are unable or unwilling to access public services through the traditional Internet.

This emerging trend in public service delivery, or as fondly referred to as m-Government, is part of a broader phenomenon of mobile-enabled development (m-development) leveraging the mobile revolution to enable development impact.

m-Government takes public services and makes them available via mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDAs, bypassing the need for traditional physical networks. As more advanced mobile devices become more common, and faster rates of data transfer become possible, more useful and higher value-added mobile services will be possible and expected from all levels of governments (especially municipal), in different areas and sectors.

In the last two years, we have seen the public sector coming up with innovative mobile applications. Simple Short Message Services (SMS) database queries have made a huge impact saving people time, money and long journeys to government offices. For instance parents who had children who sat the Kenya Secondary Certificate Examination, could get the results of their by sending a simple SMS from their mobile phone to a designated number and get the results instantly.

The same service has been extended to many other departments including the immigration department where one can query the status of their passport application; one can also get information on their voting status through a similar service from the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC).

A recent study commissioned by the Kenya ICT Board and conducted by TNS Research International indicated that 45% of Internet users in Kenya access it through their mobile phones. What this means is, we have the potential to make e-Government more inclusive if we choose to use mobile devises as the delivery channel. And this is especially so in the Government to Citizens (G2C) realm of e-Government.

And with the increased numbers and the sophistication in mobile applications witnessed in the region lately, there is no doubt that at the G2C level, m-Government will have a bigger impact than e-Government. This in itself is a good thing, as it brings government services not just closer to the people but personal and everywhere.

From a governance point of view, deploying m-Government should be part of the larger government transformation programme. This can then be used to strategically broaden public service access and impact on its citizenry. Its implementation should involve the utilization of all sorts of wireless and mobile technologies, services, applications and devices. for improving the benefits of the parties involved in e-Government including citizens, businesses and all government units.

Granted, there are already m-Government services in some ministries, but these again are outcomes of "successful accidents" than planned deployments. It is my considered opinion that the Government should spend at least 50% of its technology budget in developing and deploying m-Government applications, this will result in increase and efficient access to public services and a happy tax paying citizenry.

IIEC shows m-Government at work in Matuga

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) has done it. They have effectively demonstrated the use of mobile technologies in public service delivery, in technical terms – m-Government. This is what this column has in the past advocated for as the best way forward for an inclusive public-centric service delivery.

Just over five hours after the closing of the 101 polling stations in Matuga, the tallying center at Matuga Government Training Institute had already received about 50% of the results thanks to the newly implemented National Election Management System, which allows for electronic transmission of polling station results.

This to me is the sign of maturity of mobile technologies to handle mission critical and sensitive national tasks. On interesting facto about the system used by the IIEC is that its locally developed and, therefore, customized to the specifics of the requirements of the IIEC.

Unfortunately, this technological innovation is stranger to the existing election laws, which require that the results have to be confirmed by the submission of the infamous Form 16A. This means that the results that have been received will only act as provisional results until the said forms are submitted and approved by the Commission.

So, we still have some work to do. With this success, its time therefore that the law is changed to allow for the submission of an electronic version of Form 16A enough documentation required by the Commission to declare the office results of a polling station. When that happens then we can expect instant official election results as they stream into the big screens at the tallying centers.

But when you look at the application used to transmit the results, its actually a digitized Form 16A. It has all the details that are required by law to be included in the form. The fields included in the form include the number of votes cast, the number of spoilt votes and the number of valid votes per candidate.

Like in many other legal environments, the acceptability of electronic records as authentic documents that can stand the test of time has been growing. We have seen, the admissibility of electronic records such as spreadsheets and emails and even SMSs in court as evidence. This means we are ready to move to the electronic space and do all that we do in the physical world electronically with all legal certainty.

So with this showing in Matuga, I am sure even the techno-phobs out there are convinced that that’s the way to go. The onus is now on the IIEC to move to the next level and implement the system nationwide. I am not sure how ready they may be in terms of infrastructure acquisition and system ability, but it would have been a good thing to test this system in a live environment during the August 4^th referendum.

Having used the system in Mugirangu and now in Matuga, I am certain the bugs that could have been in the system have since been removed with enough time to clean it further should there be need to, to have seamless technology enabled referendum results transmission system. So, a double thumbs up to the IIEC and congratulations to the Matuga MP Elect, Hon Chirau Ali Mwakwere.

A big thumbs up

There has been a deep silence in the industry after the three Ministers in charge of the Finance Dockets in East Africa read their 2009/10 budget. Even the pre-budget analysts, who had predicted doom and pain, have sort of vanished or tried to curve some clever come back arguments on what can qualify as surprise budget speeches to everyone in the region.

The three were probably the most pro-ICT budget speeches ever read in the history of East Africa. This writer has in the past insisted that there needs to be serious allocations for serious ICT projects; and that if there are insufficient resources to initiate the ICT projects we intend to implement, then we either scale them down or just don’t start them.

It was encouraging to see the kind of attention that ICT got from all the three ministers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. In my considered opinion, Kenya benefited the most with both Uganda and Tanzania almost maintaining the status quo.

Honourable Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenyan minister for Finance, had the largest bag of goodies for the sector. First there was the exemption of value added tax (VAT) for mobile phones, which touched everyone; then ISP were given reason to move to fibre - ISPs can now offset against corporate tax, costs they incurred in acquiring the right to use the fibre optic cable over a period of 20 years.

The minister further allocated US$ 17million to purchase Mobile Computer Laboratories for each constituency for use by our high schools. This initiative is meant to serve as a pilot project, since there are plans to expand the project to primary schools.
The minister also gave a mention to the now famous Digital Villages – which have since been re-branded Pasha Centres - that will be rolled out in partnership with the World Bank. In the same speech, Hon. Kenyatta announced the immediate launch a one million laptop/computer campaign countrywide in partnership with the private sector. This is also meant to increase access to ICT.

In Uganda, Honourable Syda Bbumba, rest her eyes on connectivity. She said the priority in the financial year 2009/10, is in completion of the interconnectivity of the entire country. This project involves laying of over 1500 km of optical fibre to link most major towns in Uganda. She went on to announce that the government will computerize the land registry starting Q1 of the 2009/10.

Most of the taxes were maintained but duty on printers used with computers was waived. This has been a big problem negating the benefit of removing duty on computers. Accessories that accompany computers are still vat-able and some attract taxes across the region.

Hon Mustafa Mkulo in Tanzania had something to hand out to the sector too, reduction on duty on camcorders and digital cameras and he made a tactical adjustment where excise duty on mobile phone services will now be charged at the point of sale of scratch card or airtime at full face value rather than at the point the actual use takes place.

The minister sought to generate revenue from mobile services when he directed VAT on mobile services to be charged on the face value of vouchers at source rather than on discounted wholesalers’ value. This is probably the only hit that the sector suffered this year.

In fact most of the pre-budget analysts had predicted heavy taxation on mobile airtime. Overall, I think the three ministers provided the much-needed relief for the sector to grow and kept clear of the punitive taxation measures that could stunt its growth and development.

For that, I give then a big thumbs up.

Fix the KCA Law

Last month something very interesting happened, the realization by the ICT community that the there was something amiss with the Kenya Communication Amendment (KCA) of 2008 Bill that was passed into law and became an Act December last year . The media fraternity who were accused of trying to hijack the Bill were up in arms using all tricks in the book to stop the Bill’s ascension to law and wanted it booted out of parliament for clauses that they baptized “draconian”.

While this was happening, the ICT community sat pretty and became spectators as the duel between the Government and the Media industry intensified and at some point even cheering the Government to go ahead and pass the bill into law. The wishes of the IT industry were heard and rewarded with the Kenya Communications Amendment Act of 2008 which sort to legislate the entire communication sector including IT, Telecoms, Media and Postal sectors.

Now, like the Media sections of the law, the IT section had some very dangerous clauses that had been proposed initially and other serious weaknesses on e-Transactions. It was sort of agreed in one of the stakeholders meetings that the IT sector should support the Bill its flaws notwithstanding. Reason; the law making process was long and winding, and therefore it would be a major blow to the industry should the KCA Bill be thrown out of parliament. It had already taken two solid years to get the Bill on the parliamentary calendar.

So the compromise position was that the Bill should be allowed to go through and then work towards amending the weak areas through ministerial regulations, a practice that is allowed in law. In fact, it was agreed that since there was an existing draft e-Transaction Bill, all the articles on Electronic Commerce in the KCA would be expunged and form a new Bill to be pushed through parliament. This is why most of the IT players and advocates voted with the Government when it came to the KCA Act. But it appears that the proposed amendments and regulations will require time to be in place, meanwhile, the law is in place and is already becoming a challenge to the industry.

The industry was in shock last month when they realized that the Kenya Information Centre (KENIC), a public-private-partnership entity that has been managing the country’s ccTLD was operating illegally, sort of. According to the new law, KENIC needs to be registered by the country’s communications regulator, Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) for them to continue managing the .KE name space. The law has also opened up competition on the second level domain name registration, an area that until now was a reserve of KENIC.

This is a classic case where global best practices and local laws clash. KENIC is the only body recognized by the International Council for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as the bona fide managers of the .KE. The law did not take cognizance of international arrangements neither did it provide explicit guidance on how to manage the introduced competition. So as the stakeholders pull in different direction and taking different positions on this, it is paramount that the holes in the KCA Act are sealed urgently.

As agreed, the law needs to be placed under a microscope again, with all stakeholders alert and engage in panel beating it to acceptable conditions. Otherwise what we are seeing now, is just the tip of an iceberg.

Can we please get real!

To gain sustainable competitive edge, especially in this period of global economic mess, a country has to leverage technology in a big way. This is what the Obama administration knows and is doing. They are aware of the power and catalytic effect that ICT has to other sectors of the economy and in this realization, they are pumping a whooping US$ 71 Billion on IT in addition to appointing the first federal CIO in the person of Vivek Kundra to control this massive budget. Kundra’s main responsibilities will be to manage technology interoperability among agencies that will make the government transparent and efficient.

It is this sort of commitment that makes IT work, where a solid investment is made and mapped to a specific measurable outcome. In East Africa, we have never really seen this kind of commitment to investing properly in IT and yet we expect technology to work for us. Having worked with various government departments in the region, requested budgets are normally cut by more than 50% without due consideration of the kind of impact that this may have on the proposed projects. This is one of the reasons why many government initiatives never see the light of day.

For starters, just look at the budgetary allocations that IT has been receiving from the exchequer in the past years. I think in the Kenyan context, last year could have as well be know as the IT bumper harvest, the sector received what is the largest ever allocation, KSh 1 billion. This is thanks to the persistence of one Dr. Bitange Ndemo and the architects of the East African Marine System (TEAMS). That cash went to underwrite the commissioning of the feasibility study of the East African Marine System (TEAMS).

I did not get a chance to participate in the pre-budget hearing for the sector this year, however, I have some documents that have indicative figures that have been put forth by the Ministry of Information and Communication for consideration in the 2009/2010 budget estimates. My suspicion is, these figures are indicative of the region, given that Kenya is the largest economy in the region.

Under the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) 2009/10 – 2011/12, ICT falls in the Research, Innovation and Technology sector. This sector is made up of two ministries, Ministry of Higher education and Technology and the Ministry of Information and Communication together with thirty-three semi-autonomous government agencies including the Government IT Services, Directorate of e-Government and the Kenya ICT Board.

Total requirement for the sector in 2009/10 amounts to KShs. 92.4 billion up from Kshs.45.6 billion in FY2008/09. These comprise of KShs.53.4 billion required for financing recurrent expenditures while KShs.37.9 billion will be required for development expenditures. This budget financed from external resources and internally generated revenue from the institutions to the tune of KShs.10.9 billion leaving a net of 81.4 billion to be financed through the exchequer. However, the Government allocation to the Sector is only KSh 37.5 billion, less than 50% of the sector requirements.

If you dig into the numbers you realize that the core IT budget is about 24.3 billion, 50% of which is recurrent expenditure. Looking at it closer, you get to realize that most of the development allocation (10 billion) goes to a sub-programme titled, Data Management with 9 billion allocated to statistical management system. Then you start to see the gaps. 24 billion, less 10 billion for a statistical managemnt system, less 9 billion for infrastructure, less another 4 billion for training and your are left with 1 billion for everything else outside those areas. As if this is not complicated enough, the sector will only receive 50% of this allocation.

We certainly need to get serious and do things right. Under-budgeting is a sure way of having white elephants in the name of stalled projects which in itself is a waste of resources. So lets start by scoping what we really need and that can be accomplished with the available resources. I would strongly advise that we should not get into any new projects if we do not have the necessary budgetary allocations. Trying to implement a 10 billion project with 5 billion will not have the desired effect, so lets get real.

May the real BPOs please stand up

Frost and Sullivan, a respected research and management consultancy firm based in the US, predicts that the full impact of the economic slowdown will be felt by the outsourcing industry in the coming year or two. And advises that outsourcers must be quick enough to react to developing conditions and rethink business strategies if they are to maintain growth in the face of a slowing global economy.

I suspect Michael Joseph, Safaricom’s CEO read this report and went ahead to make a rather unpopular business decision among the local Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) community. This decision was to invest and manage an Sh800 million ultra-modern call centre; his motive, to be able to answer 85 percent of all customer care calls within the first 20 seconds of the first ring. This to me, reads like a move to increase operational efficiencies. Over the last one year, Safaricom has been accused of poor customer care and ever engaged customer care lines and therefore a dedicated call centre to solve customer problems is a welcome addition.

It is, however, interesting that Safaricom decided to invest huge sums of money in a service that could have been easily out sourced, or so you think. Safaricom defied experts and global best practices, in making this decision and that is probably what Frost and Sullivan are talking about. I’m reminded that they actually wanted to go that way and even put out a tender sometime last year for a BPO operator to run the call centre. With BPO profiled as a pillar within the Vision 2030, it would have been politically correct for Safaricom to go that way, but they chose to a different route.

So why did Michael Joseph chose to go against the grain? Here allow me to speculate since I’m not the man who manages the company that has in three consecutive years won the East African most respected company award. As stated earlier, Safaricom had no intention of running the call centre. They even did not want to invest in putting it up in the first place and were going to work smart by outsourcing this non-core activity to the experts, read the BPO operators. But after putting out a tender for this work twice, they realized that they could not identify an operator who was ready for their kind of work.

It has been reported in different media that the local BPO operators could neither meet the technical specifications nor the pricing expectation. Something that reminds me of an observation I made a while back on this new economic sector that most BPOs were founded on unsustainable business models and lack vision. It is estimated that more than 75% of the existing BPOs were formed after the Government through the Kenya ICT Board announced that they would provide subsidies to BPOs as a way of growing the sector in line with the Vision 2030. So to expect companies that were formed on this premise and looking out for Government handouts to invest in the kind of infrastructure that Safaricom was looking for is to say the least, a long shot.

Then, there is the issue of focus. BPOs in the country have been spending too much time looking for business outside the country that they seem to have forgotten to build capacity in their operations and look for business locally. There are many organisations like Safaricom who would like to outsource there non-core but are stuck to them because there are no suitable suitors. It is my humble submission that there is need for the BPO sector to reorganize and restrategise for it to play a meaningful role in the development of the country and to contribute effectively in our ambitious vision 2030.

Whose Internet

Last week was a rather interesting week for policy makers in the region, especially those who have taken time to understand internet governance issues. From the onset, everyone seems to know what internet governance is all about, but the moment you dig deeper and start asking hard questions, you start getting very interesting answers of how the internet cannot actually be governed.

But is this what internet governance really means? Internet Governance does not refer to governance in the "policing" sense or "control" of the internet as one would think, no. A working group established after the UN-initiated WSIS defined internet governance as "the development and application by governments, private sector and civil society, in their respective rules, shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the internet.  

So IG stems from the realisation that the internet is a scarce and valuable resource that each country and stakeholder needs access to and therefore needs policies and mechanisms acceptable to all players to promote its growth, maintain its stability and secure it. And that is what Internet Governance is all about...let me know what you think.

Opening the Internet Governance Debate in East Africa

October has been an interesting month on issues of Internet Governance. For the first time, the region, that is Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi are discussing issues around Internet Governance in preparation for a regional meeting and later a global forum for the same.

The issues around IG have been around for a while, but were probably prioritised after the second WSIS meeting in Tunis, Tunisia where the UN Secretary was mandated to form a forum for stakeholders to dialogue around issues around the way the internet is managed. This forum is currently non-policy making, however, alot of issues discussed in the forum find there way into global policies.

The region has not hard an opportunity to prepare and think issues through and identify issues that are important and common across East Africa. So having a regional meeting that aims to have a common position for East Africa, is to say the least exciting. Kenya held its National IG on the 14th of October, Tanzania followed with its version on the 22nd of October. Rwanda and Uganda are set to have their own on the 29th of October after which the issues identified will be collated and discussed at a regional meeting in Nairobi between 10-12 November. I Cant wait for this. 

ICT Policy Harmonisation a must for regional integration

There will be no regional integration without ICT, these were the words of the Deputy Secretary General of the East African Community when addressing stakeholders at the Policy Review workshop in Nairobi today. To have ICT work for the region, there is need to harmonise policies that will help achieve the goal of the EAC to widen and deepen economic, political and cultural integration in order to improve the quality of life of the people of the region through increased competitiveness.

Energy critical for success of e-Government

I have heard about it from colleagues and partners, but it had never happened in front of my eyes before, in between a very crucial session in a workshop on ICT for Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, the self proclaimed capital city of Africa and viola, an unprecedented power blackout that turns the meeting room into a dark room, akin to film production studios and forces the interpreters to move out of their interpretation booth and join the distinguished participants to push the meeting agenda forward, albeit briefly.

This got me thinking:  if we can have a blackout in the capital of the continent, which renders all communication networks unusable or provides just limited connectivity, is the continent really ready for e-Government which is highly dependent on electricity?

Yes, I hear you; one can use backup power, diesel-power generator or may be solar; just to report that none of these were available for our meeting. In Nairobi, we normally take these alternative power sources very seriously to avoid such embarrassing situations.

Moral of the story? As we plan to implement e-government in our countries, it is critical that we do this in tandem with the roll out of electricity so that we are not caught in a situation where we down our fancy, efficient, highly productive  e-Government tools for archaic traditional, inefficient  systems.  Without fear of contradiction, I would dare recommend that Governments reviewing their e-Government strategies should include a component of provision of energy...mainstream or alternative.

Digital Villages: Serious potential for e-Government

They have since been rebranded to Pasha Centres, translating to information centres or if you are like me, information access centres. This is in realisation that the digital villages are not a technological event or activity but an investment that has the potential of opening up government and effectively offer public service to the remotest village in the country.

But what the Pasha Centres are has been a subject of discussion and even controversy since the initial concept was unveiled more than a year ago. Listening to ten different people involved in the project talking about the Centres, one could be excused to thinking that its ten different projects that were being discussed.

With the kind of potential and interest from especially would be investors in the programme, the situation was to say the least worrying. I’m however, glad to report that this is quickly changing as the Kenya ICT Board took time to define, plan the deployment, roll-out, management and funding of the Pasha Centres. This to me was as refreshing as it was important.

It is almost official that the Pasha Centres will among other services offer online government services, plan are underway to link the Pashas with the implementation of e-Government in the country. This requires collaboration between the ICT Board and the Directorate of e-Government who are charged with the task of implementing e-Government in the country.

Turning traditional public services into online services is no mean task, it requires rationalisation, alignment and a sizeable investment in systems, people and re-engineering of processes within government and a massive awareness programme. This will take some time to be realised, but as long as we start walking in this direction in regard to the Pashas and e-Government, we shall get there in no time...so lets get going.

INVITATION - New Generation Organizational Models for eGovernment:

You are kindly invited to join us for a Global Dialogue workshop on New Generation Organizational Models for eGovernment: Emerging Role of Centers of Excellence. You can participate in person, via videoconference or live webcast or by sending questions to speakers in advance.

The event will take place at 09.30 - 12:30 am ET on April 1, 2008 in Washington D. C. (1818 H Street, N. W.). The event is organized by the e-Development Thematic Group/Global ICT Department of the World Bank in collaboration with GDLN, DGF, ECCB, IIS Russia, African eDevelopment Resource Centre in Kenya and other organizations.

Workshop Description.

Given the complexities of designing and implementing e-government applications, institutional structures are extremely important for achieving success. Traditionally, governments have established specialized ICT agencies/organizations to deal with technology issues in the public sector. Such agencies variously deal with policy, operational and procedural aspects of e-government. However, rapid changes taking place in technologies and business models, require a fundamental rethink of the organizational structures and institutional designs for ICT organizations supporting e-government. Apart from the public sector, the private sector has some useful lessons of experience to offer in this regard. For example, Integration/SOA Competency Centers are playing a useful role in rationalizing and coordinating IT
deployments, in cost effective and efficient ways.

This workshop will discuss the role of a new generation of e-government organizations which could extend the role of e-Government "Centers of Excellence" or "Competency Centers" in keeping with emerging technology and organizational trends. These organizations could potentially help expand and scale-up successful e-Government approaches, including
those using Service Oriented Architecture and Web 2.0 technologies. These "e-Gov 2.0" organizations could be designed as hybrids with flexible structures, drawing expertise from government agencies, academia, private sector and industry. The session intends to explore promising approaches to the design of such organisations drawing upon successful experiences from the private and public sectors. The session will discuss the applicability of such next
generation e-government organizations to different environments. In environments where e-Government projects are risky and, involve high level technical skills, and domain expertise, such approaches could effectively meld the business of government with new technologies and business models to achieve future oriented and high impact eGovernment applications.

The speakers will include:

Philippe Dongier, Sector Manager, Global ICT Dept., World Bank
Reinhard Posch, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Government of Austria (keynote address, via videoconference)
Randeep Sudan, Lead ICT Policy Specialist, Global ICT Dept., World Bank
Jaijit Bhattacharya, Country Director at Sun Microsystems India (via videoconference)
Samia Melhem (Moderator), Senior Operations Officer, Global ICT Dept., World Bank; and Chair, e-Development Thematic Group
Juan Navas Sabater, Senior Operations Officer, Global ICT Dept., World Bank

Additional information on this seminar, such as the agenda, speaker profiles and slides will be placed online as they become available at http://go.worldbank.org/2LA3GGGEA0.

Please note that a building pass will be required if you are attending in DC, and you can contact us at edevelopment@worldbank.org with your name and your institution's name so that a building pass will be requested prior to your arrival.

As an alternative, you can join us via live webcast and online discussion or in one of other participating cities (via videoconference). We can provide the list of cities, which will be connected, upon request.

The Live Webcast / e-Discussion and archived videoclip will be available at:
http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live , please respond by email to confirm your participation in the webcast.

We look forward to your attendance!

e-Development TG Team

P.S. Feel free to forward this invitation to all who may be interested!

SA government goes open source

This article by Sumayya Ismail was first published in Mail&Guardian Online

Sumayya Ismail and Sapa | Johannesburg, South Africa
27 February 2007 09:32

South Africa is joining countries such as Brazil, India and Uganda in implementing open-source software in all government departments -- and getting rid of widely used Microsoft Windows desktop programmes that come with expensive licences.

Open-source software can be shared by many users without a need for licences. The actual code can be accessed by anyone to make changes and adapt it to different situations.

A Cabinet-approved policy and strategy to implement such software will lower administration costs and enhance local IT skills, Themba Maseko, head of the Government Communication and Information System, said last week.

"All new software developed for or by the government will be based on open standards, and government will itself migrate current software to Foss [free and open-source software]," he told a media briefing at Parliament.

By April, a project office will be set up by the Department of Science and Technology, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and the State Information Technology Agency to ensure the smooth implementation of the new strategy.

Karl Fischer, the government's open-source project manager, says some government departments have already been using open-source software for "back-end" processes such as mail servers.

He said the new strategy will place open-source software in all areas of government. From mail servers to desktop applications such as word processors, there will be a move towards Linux-operated open-source software.

Petition

Last year, Sangonet and other NGOs petitioned the government and Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi to adopt an open-source software policy following a declaration signed at the 2005 Go Open Source conference at the Sandton Convention Centre.

The petition was endorsed by the Centre for Policy Studies, the Freedom of Expression Institute and the Institute for Security Studies, among others.

It urged the government "to take a stronger, direct leadership role to the benefit of all". The government accounts for more than 50% of the country's ICT use and should set a precedent that favours open source and its underlying principles, it added.

"As a developing country, South Africa, along with all the countries on the African continent, needs you and our government to act as agents of positive change in our society and trigger shifts in the ICT market dynamics, in order to favour the supply of local ICT content, support,
skills and service providers, and to reduce our long-standing dependence on imports and the negative effects created by this dependence," the petition stated.

It further held that in the spirit of broad-based black economic empowerment, the government had a responsibility to implement open-source software and make it easier for other, smaller ICT users to access the hardware and technical skills needed to sustain it.

David Barnard, director of Sangonet, says it is possible the petition prompted the government to implement open-source software. However, the decision had been "brewing within government" for a while, he said.

Fischer confirms that it was an internal government decision to implement open-source software fully. But, he added: "Obviously we do listen to what [civil society] have to say."

Benefits

Government personnel will be trained to use the new software at the Meraka Institute's training centres throughout the country. Open-source training materials are also freely available, making them more affordable and accessible to users.

Despite these training requirements and other initial costs, Fischer says open-source software will be more affordable in the long term. "Our hardware won't need upgrading … but it would have needed upgrading if we switched to Windows Vista. Linux will work out cheaper."

The cost of Linux is significantly less than that of the Microsoft licences the government has been paying, he says, although he declined to give the actual cost of the new operating system, as it will only be implemented fully by December this year.

"Because the whole open-source community is backing us, we can harness the whole community to help us," Fischer says. "People are very keen to help out where they can … and where they can't, we will have to get the necessary skills, and we have the funds for it."

Pfungwa Serima, MD of Microsoft South Africa, says the software giant fully supports the standards on which open-source software is based, as it is "in line with our software development strategy in enabling interoperability between software from multiple vendors, thus allowing customers to choose the application for their specific requirements".

Judgement reserved

Though "on-the ground" institutions and training centres are already set up, Sangonet's Barnard says he will reserve judgement until he sees the initial roll-out plans. "This is a huge opportunity for South Africa to make it work … but it may be one of those decisions that were undertaken,
but the follow-through is just not there."

Fischer says that along with a cut in costs, the open-source strategy will also foster inter-community development, transparency and sharing, and build local skills to enhance and support the new software. "And, instead of giving money away to multinationals, we are keeping it and putting it to use internally."

However, Barnard says a major challenge is the lack of public understanding of the principles of open-source software.

"The important thing is for people to understand the economic, social and other values we could derive from it … and in the bigger mindset is the creation of an information society in the country. [We need] proper understanding … the capacity, expertise and political will to do something to implement it."

However, the strategy does "look good on paper", he adds, and its implementation will "say to the world that South Africa is -- in a national, political and strategic way -- committed to open source".

East African Governments report on eGovernment progress

Last week the Regional Working Group (RWG) on eGoverenment constituted by the East African Community (EAC) secretariat in 2004 met in Arusha, Tanzania for the 10^th time to access the progress made in each country, identify regional opportunities for eGovernment and plan joint activities for the coming twelve months.

Indications from all the five EAC partner states are that eGovernment is slowly taking root and being recognized by the various governments as a transformational tool in public service delivery. It is also obvious that governments are feeling the heat of technology and is driving the change with mobile technologies making a major impact on the way services are being delivered. For instance short messaging services (sms) are gaining in popularity as a channel for public information delivery, from utility bills to examination results.

Country Round-up

Below is a summary of the highlights of progress in eGovernment from the five EAC member states as presented to the RWG.

Burundi

This is probably the most underdeveloped countries in the region has made some restructuring of its Transport, Post and Telecommunications ministry with objective of developing an e-Government strategy and its subsequent implementation. A new agency has been created under the ministry to handle all maters of Information and Communication Technologies including eGovernment. This action is meant to speed up the uptake of ICT within the government and the country at large.

Kenya

The implementation of the 2004 eGovernment Strategy is on-going despite the fact that the strategy was meant to have accomplished its mandate by end of last year. In the last twelve months, the Directorate of eGovernment has trained more than 200 officers from different ministries and departments on ICT. All the 167,000 government offers have been allocated a .go.ke email address to the district level. This according to the officials from the Directorate of eGovernment, will ease communication within government. The Directorate has also recruited and seconded to different ministries 78 ICT officers and 200 other ICT staff.

It was also reported that in 2007, the government undertook an eGovernment awareness campaign countrywide in an effort to sensitive public servants and the community of the benefits of eGovernment. All government ministries have websites which are currently being upgraded to accommodate to a standard template with the same look and feel and to allow the next phase of web presence - online transactions. Other developments reported include the online jobs application implemented by the Public Service Commission, the Integrated Population Registry System, the modernization of the Company Registry and ICT infrastructure development at provincial headquarters and government buildings.

Uganda

The government of Uganda has placed ICTs under one political leadership for policy guidance and direction by creating a ministry of Information and Communications Technology. The young ministry is charged with the implementation of the country’s ICT policy framework and the newly crafted eGovernment Strategy. To get things going, the government has initiated the National Data Transmission Backbone and e-Government infrastructure project which is meant to deploy a nationwide fiber-optic backbone and a government network. So far all government ministries are connected to one network. On the policy and regulatory side, the principles and objectives of the Cyber laws Bill have been approved by Cabinet. This paves way for the bill to be drafted and sent to parliament for discussion before being enacted into law.

Tanzania

Tanzania is the first country in the region to develop and adopt a Policy for ICT back in March 2003. A cabinet decision to fast-track eGovernment was taken in 2004 and recommended the establishment of a focal point to coalesce and reinforce the many existing, fragmented and isolated e‑Government initiatives; building of a national wide-area network to carry voice and data communications efficiently among all levels of Government; and to create awareness of the opportunities for strategic ICT use across the public service.

Though the country is yet to publish its strategy, eGovernment has been identified as a critical ingredient in the success of the objectives and outcomes of the second phase of the Public Service Reform Program. Under this initiative, eGovernment initiatives are expected to augment the operations of ministries, departments and agencies an intervention to improve the quality of service to the community.

Rwanda

Like in Burundi, Rwanda has also restructured its lead ICT organ, Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA) and place it under the Office of the President to give it the necessary clout to move the ICT and eGovernment agenda forward. This now means that the operations of RITA will be under the watchful eye of His Excellency Paul Kagame himself. RITA is currently implementing the NICI plan 2006-2010, probably the most elaborate ICT policy framework in the region with 28 e-Government Projects coordinated under 8 Directorates.

Under the eGovernment Directorate, 7 projects are already underway including the GovNet, a WAN connecting all government ministries; Video Conferencing, National ID and SmartGov, a budgeting and accounting system for government; GateKeeper, an application to help immigration control and secure at the country’s borders; it includes a Visa issuing component ; ProfileMaster, a software designed for National Security Services and Military Intelligence and Documents, a correspondence tracking system designed for the special needs of Ministries and large organizations (workflow management, document management and productivity measuring tool).

With this review, one can see there is movement in the realm of eGovernment in the region despite the challenges of resources, legislation and infrastructure. Burundi and Tanzania are yet to formally publish and adopt national strategies on eGovernment. This does not mean that there is not eGovernment activity, but their less coordination as each ministry runs and implements its own projects based on their mandate and priorities. Tanzania has taken the first steps as a draft strategy does exist but requires the political push to finalise it and start implementing. Burundi on the other hand has started making initial plans to have a stakeholders’ meeting in April 2008 to chart the way forward on eGovernment.

Kenya and Uganda seem to have gained momentum in their eGovernment efforts. From the briefing, it was clear that Uganda’s focus is on developing infrastructure while Kenya has already started rolling out some eGovernment applications including the popular Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) voter status check via sms. Rwanda on the other hand seems to have taken a wholistic approach to ICT including eGovernment and with the support and goodwill from the Country’s CEO, the sky is the limit.

IT Governance: Could the ICT Board be the answer?

While appreciating the presentation by the newly established Kenya ICT Board at the recent Kenya ICT Federation (KIF) luncheon dubbed “State of the Industry” Presentation, what came into my mind was, could the ICT Board be the answer to the IT Governance vacuum that has bogged the government ever since IT, or for the more development inclined, ICT became a priority? The presentation was quite refreshing despite the violence that has rocked the country over the December 2007 disputed elections, one could be forgiven to think that its business as usual hearing the efforts that the Board is putting in place to “develop Kenya to a top ten global ICT hub and a transformed information empowered society”, as stated in their newly crafted vision.

Having been in the ICT Strategy and Policy arenas for a while now, and almost stuck there, this was my focus while listening to the officials of the ICT Board, led by their able CEO, Paul Kukubo of the 3 Mice fame, lay their strategies and mandate in the open for the participants to appreciate and even contribute to their development. One thing that struck my attention was the scope of the Board’s work.

According to Mr. Kukubo’s presentation, the board is mandated to spearhead the development of ICT in the country and also market the country as an ICT investment destination. If you examine this mandate, it appears that, the ICT Board is actually responsible for everything ICT in the country, from advisor to Government to implementer of some “light house” projects. It cuts across policy advisory, strategy formulation and project design and implementation. Although the main pillars are Advisory, Marketing, Investment Facilitation and Project management, performing these tasks may require policy, regulatory and even legal interventions at some point.

This in itself posses major challenges for the Board, given that there are already existing institutions which are doing some of what the Board is supposed to do. A case in point is the National Communication Secretariat (NCS) under the same ministry that has been “advisor to the Government” since the enactment of the Kenya Communications Act of 1997 and the Government IT Services (GITS) under the Ministry of Finance. What I must point out from the onset, though, is the Board’s openness and the willingness to collaborate with other players both within and outside government to perform their mandate. But this is another story for another day.

For now, let’s examine what I mean by IT Governance, since this in itself is a controversial subject. This is sometimes referred to as e-Governance and should not be confused with e-Government. The Centre for Information Systems Research (CISR) at MIT defines IT Governance as the framework for decision rights and accountabilities to encourage desirable behavior in the use of IT or ICT if you want.

IT Governance is driven by the need for closer interaction and involvement with stakeholders both within and outside government. In today’s development lingo, this would be termed as multi-stakeholder participation which emphasizes on integrating the three "C's" of Cooperation, Consensus and Community. IT Governance is not about the specific decisions made, but rather about determining who makes each type of decision, who has input into the decision, and how one is held accountable for their role. This, to me sounds like what the ICT Board is trying to do or address.

Until very recently, it was difficult to point to one organization in government where ICT issues be they policy, strategic or implementation could be handled effectively. Several organizations had bits and pieces of “mandate” to do this and that despite the cross-cutting nature of ICT. This encouraged duplication of efforts, un-aligned priorities, confusion and even unhealthy competition between government ministries and departments. Governance is a key enabler of any transformation and clear active central governance is essential in federated organizations with distributed decision making to achieve strategic outcomes.

I would encourage Mr. Kukubo and his able team to take on the IT Governance challenge in the country and carefully craft the governance model that will be simple, participative and inclusive, formal yet flexible and one that will support the alignment of government-wide and departmental decisions. This way, I promise you, Kenya will alter the current BRIC+9 arrangement.

OMS and GIS Global Image sign strategic MOU

Organisational Management Systems (OMS) an information systems integration company based in Nairobi, Kenya and South Africa’s GIS Global Image, a leading Geographical Information Systems (GIS) practitioner have signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will see the toe companies working towards implementing and providing GIS solutions in East Africa.

During a recent visit to South Africa, management from both OMS and GIS Global Image, agreed on the establishment of the strategic MOU that will see transfer of skills and technology between the two organizations in addition to leveraging on their respective expertise and networks.

The basis for the MOU is mutual support in the implementation and development of GIS products and services in the East African Region. “GIS Global Image has been in this industry for a long time and we have developed a diverse skills base and understanding of the GIS technologies,” said Mr. Nico Elema, the Managing Director at GIS Global Image. “This coupled with OMS’s knowledge of the East African market, we feel that we shall be able to deliver unmatched GIS solutions in this region,” he continued.

GIS Global Image, has extensive experience in the implementation and management of GIS projects in various levels of Government and the Private Sector within the Southern African Region. Currently the company is assisting the Stellenbosch Municipality in developing and implementing their information management system on a GIS platform. Other projects undertaken include the Housing Demand Database for the Department of National Housing and the Open Source Map Viewer.

OMS on the other hand specializes on information management systems and products including records management, knowledge management and decision support systems that can be mapped on a GIS platform. With the implementation of this MOU, GIS projects and initiatives undertaken by OMS, will benefit from the extensive experience from GIS Global Image, with local skills being developed within the East African Region.

“We are excited about this partnership and are looking forward and committed to giving our clients best-of-the-breed technology solutions to help them manage their organizations better,” said Mr. Harry Hare, the Managing Director at OMS. “GIS Global Image adds a lot of value to our existing skills and solutions base to the benefit of our clients,” he continued.

Under this MOU, OMS will be responsible in rolling out an Integrated Management Information System, dubbed Papyrus, in the region. Papyrus enables Local Authorities to access information from different departments. These departments include the Town Planning-, Building Control-, Engineering and Treasury departments. All systems are GIS-based and developed on central servers, enabling the user to access data and GIS maps from an Intranet platform.

East African Local Authorities plan to implement eGovernment

Local Authorities in East Africa are planning to implement Information and Communication Technologies in an effort to increase efficiency of their operations in service delivery to the citizens. This was the message from the Regional eGovernment for Local Authorities Forum, held at in Kenya recently, writes Harry Hare. This was the first forum of its kind to be held within the region, involving local authority administrators, policy makers and ICT consultants.

A total of 68 participants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the new EAC partner states of Burundi and Rwanda took part in the event that was jointly organized by the East African Community Secretariat, the Ministry of Local Government, the Directorate of eGovernment and African eDevelopment Resource Center and supported by the Canadian ePolicy Resource Centre (CePRC).

The Minister for Local Government, Hon Musikari Kombo, in a speech read by the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Mr Reuben Rotich said that an investment in Information Communication Technologies (ICT) is not a competing need if it is properly integrated into mainstream development objectives and that investing in ICT will address the socio-economic issues that are crying out for development.

The Minister, however, cautioned that the implementation of eGovernment projects and ICT in general should not be entrenched into old processes and therefore, automate old and inefficient procedures but find new ways of delivering efficient services using modern technological tools.

“That is why the strategic deployment of ICT for improved government requires political leadership and commitment. Tackling these issues head-on, and striking the right balance between departmental autonomy and central coordination is a demanding, on-going task that has little to do with the technology itself – eGovernment is about Public Service renewal and modernization,” he continued.

The workshop showcased some of the successful implementations of eGovernment at the local authorities. From Kenya, these were Nyeri and Mavoko Municipalities, which have implemented LAIFOMS, a Local Authority Integrated Financial Operations Management Systems, a system that will be rolled out to 60 other local authorities by 2009. Kinondoni Municipality in Dar es Salaam Tanzania took the focus regionally. They have successfully implemented eGovernment systems including: Geographical Information System, Education Management Information System, Loan Master and a Health Information Management System.

Internationally, Korea took centre stage with their KONEPS (Korea Online eProcurement System) application which has won a number of awards including best procurement practice model awarded by UN in November, 2004. In addition, Seoul was jointly ranked number 1 among 100 largest cities in the world due to its eGovernment practices, by the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management and the American Society for Public Administration.

“One of the aims of the conference was to make eGovernment an attainable reality amongst our regional local authorities. Not only to enable Local Authorities to become a more efficient machinery, but also to ensure satisfaction among the citizens,” said Harry Hare, the Executive Director of African eDevelopment Resource Centre, who were responsible for putting the workshop content together.

During the closing of the Forum a multi-stakeholder approach in implementing eGovernment was encouraged. The meeting made resolutions and urged for their implementation. These included the need for the EAC Secretariat to support the articulation of a regional framework for e-government at local authority level; Partner States work to structure independent ministries or regulatory bodies that deal exclusively with ICT Development and e Government projects; Ministries Responsible for Local Governments budget for the implementation of e-Government in all local authorities; and Private sector provides technical assistance and training along with the provision of relevant technological solutions to governments.

Let’s fight Africa’s corruption plague with ICT

The poor and the honest bare the largest share of the burden of deprivation and lack of services and infrastructure caused by corruption. This is the absurdity of this shadowy, multi-pronged pandemic that extends its tentacles, octopus-like, into all aspects of life. No amount of media exposure and political rhetoric, or event street protests, will make it go away. The latest Transparency International report, which ranks Kenya among the most corrupt countries, should serve as a wake-up call for us all: the efforts being made are not bearing fruit and, therefore, there is need to change strategy.

Considerable research has been done and piles of papers presented on this subject, yet the practice keeps on re-inventing itself and re-emerging in many different forms as if to challenge the crusaders to yet another bout! As a self-proclaimed ICT evangelist, I think it’s time that African governments seriously consider the use of available technological solutions to curb this menace.

Typically, administrative corruption is a result of complex rules for the common man to comprehend and effectively follow and, therefore, calls for intermediaries; civil servants are very powerful people and their discretion to delay or deny service without giving reasons or the perception of the same leads people to allocate some “speed money” to expedite their transaction; and poor handling of complaints, let alone the weak and incompetent investigation procedures and slow judiciary system. All these are issues that can be eased with the use of appropriate ICT systems. And they work particularly well when they are embedded in broader institutional reforms.

But then, are African governments really keen on stamping out corruption? Because if they are, then ICTs can provide powerful tools and solutions for controlling official corruption. One inherent success factor in the application of ICTs is that they enhance transparency, particularly at the transactional level, while offering opportunities for easier access to public records, transactional trails and establishing linkages among geographically separated systems for better accountability.

Sample this: Over the past decade the majority of corrupt deals in East Africa, for example, have been executed from government procurement tenders. This is probably the largest loophole that unscrupulous civil servants and their private sector collaborators have used to cheat governments and stolen millions of shillings. The infamous Anglo Leasing case in Kenya is a case in point.

ICTs in the form of electronic procurement systems can inhibit the ability of government officials to cut deals. Online public review of tender documents can assure appropriate competition and public scrutiny of procedures. But this can only happen if the necessary legal framework that supports these new technologies and the new knowledge economy is in place.

For instance, the registration of permits online, with fees paid separately to a commercial bank, can reduce fraudulent construction practices that lead to structural failures and human casualties. This also minimizes the face-to-face contact between officials and customers which in itself is a conduit for corruption. The same can be said about birth certificates, work permits, passports etc. There are many cases that we can make reference to in virtually all sectors of the economy, and ICT solutions are available to aid. And in social services and development, health, agriculture, education can all benefit from the utilisation of ICT to curb corruption.

Having said that, it is important to note that ICT is not a silver bullet but only a tool to help us efficiently achieve our stated objectives. . And as stated earlier, ICTs should viewed from a holistic view and be integrated in broader institutional reforms or frameworks such as the Public Service Reforms happening in most Africa Governments today. This way, ICTs can become effective enablers that can bring out major changes, for the better, in public service delivery.

With a collaborative process, political will, strong administrative leadership and citizen partnership, ICT could be the tool we have been waiting to for to neutralize this never-say-die demon – corruption.