@Mkeiy...Entrepreneurship and innovation is being talked about continually in Kenya. This isn’t some small-time effort.They’ve been thinking hard and smart about the lessons to be learned not only from Silicon Valley, but with only 40 million people, they are also looking for lessons from other small innovation clusters such as Israel, Singapore and Finland. These countries are great models of countries too small to sustain startups of scale on just domestic consumption yet have managed to create innovation with a global reach.

However that said for a country so focused on innovation and startups the lack of venture capitalists is easily noticeable. Given the interesting things being talked about,one would have thought the place would have been crawling with VC’s fighting over deals. Instead it feels like the government – through ICT BOARD - is doing most of the risk capital investing. Given that great VC’s are much, much more than just a bag of money, this means that startups will lack experienced board members with practical experience. There also seems to be very few stakeholders on-board who know/willing to coach entrepreneurs and to build companies.Lastly there seems to be few tools, techniques and strategies to do so.

Point to note there’s confusion in both the Government about the difference between small business entrepreneurship (startups designed to be family businesses,) scalable startup entrepreneurship (startups designed from day one to scale big inside Kenya and then expand globally) and corporate entrepreneurship

These three types of entrepreneurship need to be explicitly recognized, encouraged and managed

My sense is that Kenya has not yet “declared a major.” Saying that you support entrepreneurship and innovation is a start, but the sentence needs to be finished. Entrepreneurship and innovation in what field? Where will Kenya establish technical and innovative leadership? Is the only way they will attract talent by paying entrepreneurs to come to the country? Or will students and entrepreneurs come to Kenya because it is one of the best places in the world for innovation in certain specific industries (pick your favorite – alternative energy? materials science? food science? cellulose outputs? video games and film? East African web commerce hub? automated mining? UAV’s? etc.)

I think what seems to be missing is a stated goal for Kenya to become a magnet for talent in specific domains. Why will people from East Africa and indeed rest of Africa stream to Kenya, besides its magnificent geography and wild Animals, In what fields will Kenya's universities and entrepreneurial culture create such an irresistible pull?

However, i can point out the elements that made Silicon valley successful, and point out the ones that may be helpful in Kenya; the role of Universities and defense-driven university R&D, the rise of venture capital, a failure-tolerant culture and the emerging science of entrepreneurial education.

So there you go to summarise this, the tech city should be a means to and end not an end itself, we lack glaringly on so many aspects mentioned above and dare i say this, it's about time we stopped focusing on this white elephant projects and start by first feeding our people.

And by the way do you know, the PALM DXB is sinking, do you know due to the huge costs the burj incurred in building and running it will never make money...is this the route you want us to go down to...stay away from the mirage that is Dubai..stay well away.



This info is pro-bono my friend!!

...The best way Govt. should do is try the Kitengela EPZ route-create an 'EPZ' kind of atmosphere with leased land,zero taxes and add ICT attractive features e.g ICT University,cable internet, ICT Gadget Manufacturers just like they do in EPZ.
What i can see with the current marketing is a good and effective method to sell real estate whereby the only winner is the land owner.

The Americans said that Kenya is good at making plans - in reference to vision 2030 - and that we will never get anything done. I am glad that there are many pessimists here and they are entitled to their opinion, but nothing has ever come out of nothing. I am glad we can be having this kind of conversation which would have been impossible in the KANU years. I am glad we have a dream, which by the way does not mean there will be no challenges! But someone is ready to try something, and they have my support. They may fail, but at least they did not just sit in their carpeted offices and just grow fat!!!

These among other comments by people here are in my view totally correct.

In June 2011, I wrote similar sentiments in a blog article about this vision2030 thingy, below are some excerpts from the blog.

"There are no short cuts when it comes to building long term growth paths. It has taken India many decades to be where they are today. India’s exported talent are among the largest contributors to the success story that is Silicon Valley."

"Korea’s exponential industrialization and success in electronics manufacturing has been largely driven by capitalizing on development of human resources. As of 1997, the literacy rates in Korea were at 95%."

"Surprise surprise, Korea is the world’s biggest supplier of DRAM –simply, computer memory."

"One strategically selected industry is enough to propel a country’s growth into a global player. This requires proper understanding of the global markets and forces that affect value creation in any chosen industry."

"In summary, there are no quick fixes to build a prosperous Kenya where we can all lead a “high quality life” by 2030. The government needs to define exactly what value Kenya can deliver to the global markets or the African continent in order to attain economic prosperity. After definition, go ahead and realign everything else in the country to support development and growth of the selected industries."

The entire blog can be read from here: Link

The South Korea mentioned has not always been like that. To achieve levels of 98%,you got to have the means.South Korea has NOT always had the means, neither the literacy levels of 98%. To understand where they've come from, you need to go beyond 25years ago.To REALLY appreciate South Korea & where it has come from, go back to the years just after the Korean war,in the late 1950's. There came to power, a dictator. A people's dictator who made every South Korean work like a machine,not for themselves,but for the state. There was NO such human capital to write home about,but that DIDN'T stop them from starting factories. Companies like Samsung,Hyundai, Daewoo, Goldstar[now LG after merger] , got all the support from gov't. Gov't allocated them swathes of land to build factories, gave them loans cheaply,they didn't pay taxes. To save the gov't money,people were made to clean up their neighborhoods,make drainage. A working week was 6 days. They were forced to plant trees everywhere. Those days,there were not many learned people. Not every kid went to school. With the whole country disciplined, productivity improved,the companies thru' gov't support grew. Everybody put the country first. By late 1970s, South Korea was well on its feet. They could afford good life,most kids could go to school, their companies continued producing inferior products compared to Japan & the West. But life was better. Sad the era of the People's dictators is ending. In the 1980s & 90s, democracy takes root, but they are already way into the middle economy. Now the gov't can educate the children for free,the big companies have money to dedicate to R&D guys,everybody is happy. Come late 90s, South Korea has arrived to the world stage. Their products are world class. Early 2000s, they are rich enough to co-host the world. Late 2000s and their products are becoming barometers of quality worldwide. Nothing happens in a day. It starts from somewhere. The gov't role is SO significant in an economy like ours [just as it did in Korea's case], for the gov't to take the bulls by its horns. The reason why South Korea is what it is today with Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Daewoo etc, its coz the gov't rolled its sleeves and got dirty. They have done in 50 years,what the West took centuries. Why should Kenya take centuries? You got to look deep in the past, to foresee far into the future.

Let me just ask this....
If you were Seven Seas,Craft Silicon,Nokia Siemens,Ericsson,Safaricom,Kencall,KDN,AK,IBM,HP etc.....why would you shift your office from Westlands/Mombasa Rd to Konza?

Is it that taxes will be lower?Fibre faster?Cheaper labour?Cheaper electricity?Huge market?

What?

Positive thinking is a great thing. But blind hubris is not.

...

I'm very optimistic that the Kenyan IT startups will succeed DESPITE Konza.