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Moses Kemibaro made an amazing video of Safaricom’s departing CEO, Michael Joseph, who spoke for about 2 hours at iHub on his wildly successful and "peculiar" decade at the helm of Safaricom, Kenya’s leading mobile network.

Here's a tidbit that should get you watching: Michael Joseph was told when he started at Safaricom that the entire mobile phone market in Kenya would be about 400,000 customers in 5 years, and Safaricom would have 50% of that market. We all know that didn't happen, so watch the video to learn more:

Salim Mvurya, Plan Kwale's District Area Manager

Plan’s Kwale District office in Kenya has been very successful in building innovative community-led programming that incorporates new ICTs. I had the opportunity to interview Salim Mvurya, the Area Manager, last week, and was really struck by his insights on how to effectively incorporate ICTs into community-led processes to reach development goals and improve on child rights, child protection and governance.

In this video, Salim gives some background on how Plan Kwale has been using ICTs in their programs since 2003 (1:11). He shares ideas about the potential of new ICTs (3.42) and some key lessons learned since 2003 (5.03).

Watch the video to get the advice straight from Salim. Or if your internet connection is slow or you’re like me and you like to skim through an article rather sit still and watch a video, the transcript is below.

ICTs and development Part 1

My name is Salim Mvurya, I’m the Area Manager for Plan in the Kwale District. My core responsibility as an area manager is to provide leadersip to the Kwale team in both program issues and also operational issues within the organization. This week we have been here in a workshop where we’ve been focusing mostly on issues of ICT for development and particularly what we’ve been learning here is the issue of mapping.

We’ve also learned Ushahidi. We’ve also learned from our colleagues in Kilifi on mGESA (a local application of mGEOS that Plan Kenya, Plan Finland, University of Nairobi and Pajat Mgmt are developing) and basically we have been looking at this workshop as providing opportunities for using ICTs for development, but more particularly for us in Kwale is the issue of child protection and youth governance.

How has Plan Kwale been using ICTs for issues of child rights, child protection and child participation?

ICT in Kwale has a bit of a long history and it’s because of the issues on child rights. Kwale has a number of issues. Child marriages, issues of violations of child rights through sexual exploitation, and child poverty. So the efforts to do media started in Kwale in 2003 when we rolled out our first video that was done by children at the time to profile some of the issues of child marriage. But more importantly in 2005, we began to think greatly how we can bring the voices of children to duty-bearers and at time we thought of having a children’s community radio.

Because of lack of experience, we were thinking maybe at the end of that year we could launch the radio station. But then it took longer than we envisioned because we needed to roll out a participatory process. Alongside the same time, we had ideas of community-led birth registration which was being done in one community based organization. But later we also thought about looking at how ICT can help us in moving that direction.

Then we also had this idea of inter-generational dialogue, where children and youth can sit with duty-bearers and discuss critical issues affecting them, so we began using youth and video there, children and video, and showing those videos in a community meeting where then people could discuss the issues. Alongside the same time we were partnering with various media houses and also rolling out radio programs where people could listen and also foster some discussions on children.

So it’s been a long journey but I think what we are seeing is that we need now to consolidate the gains, the experiences and efforts so that we can have a more strategic approach to ICT for Development and this workshop basically provides us with an opportunity and a platform to think much more.

What potential do you see for some of the newer ICT tools for your work in Kwale?

I see great potential in some of the tools that have been learned here this week, more particularly to get information at the click of a button from the ground. We could use the tools to map out resources out in the community, to map zones where there are a lot of issues on child protection, areas where we have issues like low birth registration… There is great potential for the tools that we’ve learned here to assist us not only in planning for projects, but in issues of social accountability. For example if you map out the areas where we have projects for Constituency Development Fund you can easily see where we have projects that have been done well but where we also have projects where maybe communities will need to discuss much more with duty-bearers to be able to, you know, foster issues of social accountability.

What are your biggest challenges? What mistakes have you made?

One thing that we’ve been learning in the process… well, you know sometimes we have ideas that we think can work in the next week, like for example the children’s community radio when we were thinking about it we were thinking that it could take off in about 2 months. But what we learned is that there are processes to be involved. Communities have to be prepared well for sustainability. Children have to be trained, there needs to be capacity building. You have also to conform to government procedures and processes.

The same also with birth registration. We thought in 6 months we could send an SMS and get your birth notification, but what we have also learned is that it takes a process. It takes awhile. You have to get the government buy in. You also have to work on software, where the government is having a critical input. Because, although it is a pilot, we also think that if it works well then it has to be replicated, so it has to conform with the thinking in government. Also, with the issues of youth and media, one thing that has to be very clear is that you have to get youth who are committed, so you start with a bigger group, and you end up with those who are passionate

So I think it’s very critical when somebody is thinking about ICT for Development that, one, you look at the context: is it relevant to that area? What kind of skills are needed? What kind of processes for sustainability? but also getting the passion. Getting people who are passionate to lead the process is also a very critical lesson.

Originally published as Salim’s ICT4D advice part 1: consider both process and passion

"In terms of talking about technology in Africa, its easy to get excited about all the connectivity we're about to get. 17 Terabytes of online capacity by 2012. We already have four innovation centers coming up in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana.

But the thing to remember about technology and all of this connectivity and access that we're getting, is that all of it is not necessarily going to be the panacea for Africa's problems. Technology in its essence here on the continent, should really be an enabler, versus the final solution."

Watch the video for more from TMSRuge, co-founder of ProjectDiaspora

Were you excited to hear that Google now has location-aware AdWords for Kenya and South Africa? I was overjoyed that Google is paying closer attention to African consumers and content producers, until Miguel pointed out one small issue:

Getting cash in African hands

[T]here is no mention of how people from Africa are to either pay for AdWords or for content publishers to be paid for AdSense displays. As I've mentioned before, Google has no practical payment set up for anywhere in all of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Google's lack of a payment system effects more than just its own customers - it holds back the entire web development community in Africa. How can organized efforts like Coded in Country or even personal projects hire Africans if we can't pay them?

Before you suggest Paypal, realize that it too does not support payments to anyone in Sub-Sahara Africa. It even actively harasses Americans in Africa who are legitimate, long-term customers, just because of their IP address.

Opportunity in Discrimination

Where others decry the lack of ePayment services, I like to look at an empty glass as opportunity - there is a demand for ePayment systems in Africa and the company that can fill this glass will be richly rewarded. But don't take my word for it. Here is Oluniyi David Ajao describing ePayments as the biggest business opportunity in West Africa:

Note that there are some limited international systems and a few decent nationwide systems in existance. Mac-Jordan has described Ghana’s cashless society and E-zwich, and Rachel's Bargain Corner see the emerging mPayment systems like Zap and M-PESA as a Kenyan eCommerce advantage.

But its a pan-African payment system that will, like David says, really empower intra-African eCommerce and online businesses - maybe even more than the current bandwidth bonanza.

Until then, this business opportunity is leaving cash on the table. Who will be the first to grab it?

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Dr Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary to the Kenyan ICT Ministry is a keen advocate of the key role of local content in Kenya according to this interview with KenTel and ALIN representatives on Digital Villages programme progress

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