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Check out this 5-year, $100 Million RFA released by USAID, "Malawi Support for Integrated Service Delivery."

Reading this RFA I couldn't help but think about recent Technology Salons that showcased how SMS text messaging can empower healthcare implementers and patient beneficiaries to communicate better and faster, and an earlier Salon with Baobab Health about healthcare in Malawi:

1. Clear Mobile Phone Advantages in Development
2. SMS4D: Text Messaging to Increase Impact
3. Four Key Themes in Improving Patient Care with ICT

Now with those Salons in mind, I'm struck by how SMS technologies could add sizzle to this proposal by vastly increasing patient care, compliance, and results.

As we've seen with ChildCount+, text messages are an effective way to survey family health and report indicators of disease and solutions like HappyPill can increase drug compliance.  In Malawi, SMS:Medic has already showed impressive mHealth results and Baobab Health would be a great local partner. They're managing several health facilities and providing eHealth solutions to the Ministry of Health in Malawi.

So while the RFA doesn't explicitly mention mHealth or even eHealth, either could be the winning advantage for a proposer and a great example of how Technology Salons can inspire innovative proposals for USAID.

Reasons enough that if you're in Washington, DC, you should join us at the next Salon.

Esoko is an award-winning market information platform across 9 African countries that allows
farmers, traders, projects and businesses to use mobile phones to manage their businesses and
improve access to markets.

The software and support is developed in Accra at BusyLab, and they're looking for smart and dynamic people to join the team, build products and support expansion.

Esoko is hiring a variety of techie positions: Systems Manager, Software Developers, Technical Manager, Product Managers, & Mobile Engineers.

Senior Business Consultant

They're also looking for a Senior Business Consultant. This is a senior role to establish business plans, provide trainings & consulting, and develop strategies for key Esoko partners across Africa. This would be a great communicator with natural talent at both senior policy making level, as well as with farmers in the field, and motivated by innovative private business models that leverage ICTs to drive economic development. Fluent French or Arabic a plus.

More Esoko job opportunities...

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When it comes to ICTs, Government's role is to create and sustain a conducive environment through regulation and legislation.

In addition, a sound government strategy should also consider making strategic investments (aka stimulus plans in the financial and economics world), promoting home grown ICT private sector and addressing appropriate skills development in the education and training sector.

Lastly, any government strategy or intervention should recognize and address the critical facets of the ICT eco-system which I would roughly categorize as infrastructure, content and applications and services.

Government ICT Seriousness Ranking

This leads me then to craft my own ICT "seriousness" criteria (if you want a more scientific set of criteria, then consider the Networked Readiness Index or other related indices) we can use to roughly and unscientifically judge how "serious" a government is about ICTs:

1. Enabling regulatory environment and legislation that takes into consideration all the major facets of the ICT eco-system
2. Clear strategic investments that address all facets of the ICT eco-system
3. promoting home grown ICT sector
4. addressing skills development and relevance of the education system.

How do African countries measure up against these ICT seriousness criteria?

Open competition - AccessKenya Fibre ad in Nairobi Kenya

A cursory review would reveal that most (but certainly not all) African countries have taken steps to enact conducive ICT legislation and provide an enabling ICT regulatory regime, promoting open and somewhat fair competition and private sector participation. Witness the mobile phone growth phenomenon in Africa, liberal telecommunication licensing regimes or the fact that many countries are exempting taxes on ICT hardware and software.

Many countries in Africa are also making some strategic investments in infrastructure in the form of national backbone networks partly thanks to Chinese money. But few are actually taking active steps to promote and invest in local content, applications and services even though the rhetoric at major ICT conferences often centers on promoting local content and languages so as to avoid "digital neo-colonization".

Even fewer are actively promoting the local ICT private sector as far as I know. And while ICT skills development is increasingly on the lips of many African education officials, few countries are walking the talk.

Kenya is distinguishing its self by "walking the talk" on many of these issues.

Minister Kenyatta putting ICT in the budget

Take infrastructure investments- not only has the country invested in a national fiber backbone, it went one further with its own submarine fiber (TEAMS). Talk of promoting the local ICT private sector and consider that the government is subsidizing satellite connectivity for the BPO sector until prices come down with fiber roll out and providing other subsidies for office space and training. There are challenges to be sure but at least the government is taking active measures.

The recent announcement by the government to stimulate the local content and application development is most likely ground breaking in the region.

On the skills development front, the government is taking active measures: the 300 computers for schools in every Kenyan constituency in the recent budget, the one million laptops programme initially targeting university students and various skills development programmes underway in the country.

The government is also moving to tackle "anti-competition" issues in the ICT sector in a bid to open up the sector for more players. A recent comparative review of ICT uptake in Kenya and Tanzania in balancing-act Africa also reveals quite clearly why Kenya is ahead of its peers.

eGovernment investment

One factor, not included in my seriousness criteria above, by which I usually judge a countries' seriousness about ICT is the extent to which the government itself is adopting ICTs- aka e-government. After all, charity should begin at home.

I believe that Kenya is taking e-government seriously:

• All government ministries have fairly well staffed ICT departments courtesy of the e-government directorate in the office of the president set up to coordinate e-government issues
• Local area networks have been upgraded
• Most ministries now have website which are regularly updated
• Key services are increasingly being digitized
• Mobile phone services are being integrated into the e-government strategy
• Even more importantly, concrete investment in the necessary infrastructure and applications is being and continues to be made.

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Other notable ICT aware countries

Rolling out fiber networks in Rwanda

If we look around sub-Saharan African, another country in the region that would score quite highly on these "seriousness" criteria would be Rwanda which shouldn't be surprising since its development strategy hinges on ICTs.

To be fair, other countries in Africa outside North Africa, Mauritius and South Africa are making some strides. The other East African Community members Uganda and Tanzania have liberalized their telecommunications sectors and investments in national high speed backbones are underway in both countries.

But active measures to promote local content and services or even local private sector and measures to address skills development seem to be limited. The Nigerian government is also beginning to make the right noises and to put its money where its mouth is. So is Mozambique and Senegal.

I get the sense that the many other countries, including the other southern African countries, do say the right things but have yet to show serious commitments to ICTs according to my seriousness criteria above. But then again, every country has it own development strategy and ICTs (except for the mobile phone sub sector) are not necessarily a priority for many.

Evidence of this can be gleamed by perusing the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) for the least developed African countries which include most sub Saharan African countries. While many of the PRSPs make some mention of "developing the ICT sector" and/or recognize the ICT sector as a "growth" sector, only a handful including those for Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Mozambique and to some extent Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi and Ethiopia seem to pay particular emphasis to ICTs in their core strategies.

One hopes that the trend towards greater integration of Africa means that countries are watching out for what their peers are doing right (and wrong) and that over the short term (1-5 years), there will be dramatic positive developments in the ICT sphere across Africa.

Under its Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme, GeSCI is seeking a Technical Officer to provide input and expertise to the new ALICT Project. The Technical Officer will provide the required technical expertise for the ALICT Project Team to build and experiment with a new Learning Management System as well as social networking tools.

The ideal candidate will have a background in computer science, computer engineering, information management systems or a related field, ideally to Masters Level; together with 3 years’ programming experience developing database driven, dynamic or transactional web based applications.

About the JPO Programme

The Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme is, primarily, an opportunity for on-the-job development field training for young professionals who are at the beginning of their career and who wish to make a career in the area of international development assistance.
Please note that the Programme should not be considered as a point of entry to long-term employment in GeSCI.

These officers are given on-the-job training in the various activities and procedures of the GeSCI programmes, generally in the head office in Nairobi, Kenya, but also in some projects in the field. They are expected to assume the substantive responsibilities of any junior programme official in a relatively short period of time.

About the ALICT Project

The African Leadership in ICT (ALICT) Project is in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC) and funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The overall goal of the Project is to develop a group of African ICT, Education, S&T and Knowledge Society leaders that can become agents for change in their own countries and be catalysts for regional cooperation in the domain of ICT, Education, S&T and Knowledge Societies both at the country and sub-regional levels.

The primary beneficiaries will be future and potential leaders and policy makers in AUC HRST, the Ministries of ICT, Education, Higher Education, Science and Technology and other Ministries responsible for human resources development primarily in Southern and Eastern Africa.

• Read more about the opportunity here

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GeSCI, the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative, is a non-profit organisation founded by the United Nations ICT Taskforce. GeSCI provides strategic advice to Ministries of Education in developing countries on the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Education within the context of inclusive Knowledge Societies.

GeSCI is seeking an experienced international expert/ project manager, with advanced qualifications in the Science and Technology (S&T)/ICT/ Knowledge Society sector. This person is expected to contribute to GeSCI programmes as an international expert and, if required, take responsibility for the operational management of the new regional leadership programme on Knowledge Society.

The International Expert / Project Manager will be mainly responsible for implementing and managing the new regional leadership programme which is implemented in partnership with the African Union and Finland; ensuring that the Programme is properly planned and executed; and managing the team and other resources so that the results and outputs are delivered on time and within budget. He/she will provide advanced expertise for GeSCI and the regional programme in the Knowledge Society domain, especially in an African context, and will facilitate supportive research activities in this domain. In addition, he/she will build effective partnerships and will actively represent GeSCI at relevant regional and global forums.

Key requirements of the role are:

• Advanced university degree in Science and Technology /ICT/ Knowledge Society sector (Master’s level, but preferentially doctorate in one of the designated fields).
• A minimum of ten years experience of progressively responsible experience in one or more of the above fields (S&T/ICT/ Knowledge Society), preferably including some years in a development context, and of which at least 3 years are at management level.
• Project Management expertise with a proven track record of having managed/coordinated large scale programmes, preferably in regional or multi-country programmes and on the African continent.
• Excellent communication, networking and relationship-building skills.

This is a 3-year fixed term contract based in Nairobi, Kenya with regular travel in Southern and Eastern Africa. A competitive remuneration package will be offered to the right candidate.

Interested applicants should apply to hr [at] gesci.org no later than close of business on Monday 12th July, enclosing a Curriculum Vitae together with a covering letter stating how you meet the requirements of the role.

Merry Christmas to Kenya's ICT community! Look at the present that Honorable Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Finance, and Technology Santa brought you in the fiscal year 2010/2011 budget for Kenya:

Minister Kenyatta & his budget

Mr. Speaker, our country has invested heavily in the ICT infrastructure and it is only prudent that we also invest in our educational system in order to exploit its potential to bridge the digital divide in our economy.

With this in mind, I have allocated Ksh 1.3 billion toward purchase of 300 computers in each constituency and to make ICT a reality in our rural schools. These computers will provide a platform to expand the e-learning initiative and allow for equal access to quality lessons.

The Government will source these computers from public institutions that have computer assembly facilities. We believe that this will also benefit out students undertaking ICT and computer engineering studies.

This is a great leap forward in providing ICT access for every Kenyan, but its also an amazing opportunity for every country in Africa. Here are 3 reasons why:

1. We now have a program to showcase

With Kenya buying computers for every constituency, the Kenyan government is giving its stamp of approval for other governments to spend budget on computer purchases. And by buying computers for education, the Kenyan government is investing in its future - its children. Its also being practical and requiring local assembly partners - investing in local ICT right from the beginning.

2. Kenya is a worthy country to follow in ICT

Of all African countries, Kenya is one of the best in enabling an ICT ecosystem that allows private industry to respond to the marketplace free from government intervention. Even better, the government itself is online - I found the budget notes through the Kenyan government website.

3. This will drive ICT investments in other countries

I'm wondering what Ethiopia or Tanzania are thinking right now? I would say they are feeling a bit left behind. And I'm glad. If only other African countries would be as progressive across the ICT field as Kenya, we could have better access for all.

So join me in celebrating 300 computers for every constituency. This is the start of a great change in Kanya and beyond

Over the years you will notice there have been various complaints about Nigeria’s tech community not being active. In fact it’s possible to write a book about why we don’t have a community or why our technology industry is far asleep. You know, like have always said; most of the platform other countries have, that helped them a great deal to kick start their technology advancement we don’t have them in Nigeria.

So trying to compare Nigeria with other countries will just be a shadowed look of what really is! We believe that things that we don’t have cannot fall from heaven or we expect government to just wake up someday and build them all! Yea! They can wake up but that could take the next 15years or more! For us, we don’t believe we have to wait that long to make it happen! The time is now!

So the idea is; if it does not exist, build it! We don’t have to complain our generation away while scrapping the opportunity to make our shoulders wide enough for others coming after us to ride on! Enough of the rhetoric, let’s discuss Tech Hub Nigeria!

So, what is tech hub Nigeria about?

If you have heard of tech hubs located in various countries; Techhub UK, Silicon Valley, iHub in Kenya, Silicon Cape in South Africa and in many other countries!

Tech hubs facilitates access to technology infrastructure (computer, internet, power) that helps geeks build technology solutions, network with other technologist, office space to meet with investors, startups, mentoring programmes, and resource centre. That is what tech hubs are set up to achieve!

How shall it work?

Most of us pushing stuff in Nigeria met online, mostly on Nairaland and Facebook! And so far, we have been able to know ourselves better, do business and build stuff! So we intend to leverage on that platform to build from online to offline! The last Barcamp Nigeria was super successful, as we got beyond expected participants and the enthusiasm level was so high that it needs to be sustained and advanced!

Online Tech Hub

We have created an online forum to continue conversation started at Barcamp Nigeria, also to allow any budding technopreneurs link up with others and help answer their questions. We are committed to building the online community to a massive resource centre that will foster networking and collaboration to build technology businesses. We understand that there is no viable online community for Nigerians, so we are building it! We also know that it will take time, and we are ready to accelerate that time!

Offline Tech Hub

We are raising money from our pockets and from partner companies to build a physical tech hub that will be able to take at least 100 geeks at a time. This will allow techies who are constantly battling with power problem, internet subscription and computers to get started, and build stuff they have dreamed of. The hub will also provide facilities that will help them build business around their tech ideas and mentoring from best tech brains Nigeria have! In five to six months time, the tech hub should be ready by God’s grace and it will be located in Lagos (the economic hub of Nigeria)!

I see a Nigeria where we will not only be relevant by our population but by the productivity of our technology industry towards advancement of our citizens and for the good of the world!

Complain time is over; it’s time to build, so let’s get to work!

The ICT employment floodgates are open with job openings at three great companies to work for in Nairobi, Kenya. So what are you waiting for? Apply for a new job in ICT today!

• Technical Deployment Project Manager at Grameen Foundation
• Systems Engineer - Java with AMPATH
• Multiple coding and sales positions with Google in Nairobi and across Africa

Want to know of more job openings? The follow us on Facebook!

When Russel Southwood of Balancing Act, interviewed Ken Njoroge, CEO of Cellulant, on mobile phone music downloads, I was expecting a general overview of the musical tastes of Kenyans. How wrong was I!

In his telling interview, Ken Njoroge revealed that music downloads via mobile phones is a $4 million dollar Internet business opportunity:

Lipuka: a mobile music money maker

Q: So how many monthly music downloads are you dealing with?

A: It fluctuates depending on marketing activity but in a typical good month we get somewhere between 300,000-400,000. A successful artist might have 200,000-300,000 downloads over 3 months.

Q: What’s the cost of downloading a track?

A: In Kenya it ranges from KS50-70 (US64-89 cents) and in Nigeria it’s about the same at around N100 a track (US66 cents).

Q: Who gets what out of that?

A: First, the Government takes 26% in taxes. After that, the operator generally takes 50-60% and we pay 10-12% to the artist in royalties. Prices across the countries we operate in are broadly similar.

Now let us do the math to see where the money is. First, 400,000 downloads at KS70 gives us 28,000,000 Kenya Shillings per month in gross revenue (or about $4 million USD annually).

Now with the calculation to the right, we get 2.5 million Kenya Shillings in net revenues each month. Not bad for an Internet business, eh?

Especially when you realize that Ken feels that he's only reached a tiny fraction of the 7 million buyers across Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Botswana and Malawi where Cellulant operates.

In addition, Ken estimates that 20-30% of that total market have media capable handsets - today. As that percentage grows, so will revenue opportunities with multimedia savvy Internet consumers who see their mobile phone as a mainstream music distribution channel.

I can't wait to see what will happen when Ken & Cellulant take on the video download business at Wuse market. Movies will be a whole other business opportunity for him.... or for you!

Building on last month's amazing Skype Chat on Nigerian Internet Business Opportunities we're now going to look beyond any one country, and investigate business opportunity in East and West Africa:

1. How might Internet business opportunity and entrepreneurship be different in East Africa versus West Africa?
2. What could each region learn from the other?
3. And what can we do now to improve cross-Africa collaboration?

These are the questions we'll discuss in the next ICTworks Twitter Chat - a freewheeling conversation around our central questions on the Twitter platform.

We'll start at 14:00 GMT (your timezone) on April 22nd with introductions, then move into the discussion, using the #ICT4D hashtag in Twitter. Be sure to RSVP here.

You may want to use TweetChat as your Twitter client for this chat - we've found it to be worthy.

Our hope is to learn from each other and find ways we can increase Internet business opportunity and entrepreneurship across Africa.

Be sure to follow ICTworks on Twitter and RSVP today!

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