Smart idea, but how many will buy it?

The Konza Tech City project is undoubtedly an ambitious one, driven by the desire to catapult Kenya to the forefront of a technology renaissance.

The idea of a city designed and built with the ethos of fostering a collaborative atmosphere of information technology that serves as a basis for business, research, and development and education is truly an idea whose time has come.

However, as a student of history with a keen interest in ancient and modern warfare, I have become cognisant of the fact that most wars are not won by a single epic battle, but a series of small skirmishes.

I say this because, as an entrepreneur in the ICT sector running a software development company, much as I laud the Konza initiative as a whole, I find that, for a small business such as mine with pressing challenges for me here and now, Konza has nothing to offer me.

Perhaps, first, some context.

I co-run a software company specialising in development of financial software and tools for the finance and investment sectors.

My clients are banks, fund managers, and private equity firms. This is a highly specialised industry requiring a lot of domain knowledge in financial instruments.

My chief competition, I find, is foreign firms, chiefly in Europe and South Africa. These firms tend to be larger in terms of staff and capacity. In other words, even before we get out of the gate, I am an underdog.

For local companies, when sourcing software from abroad, support and maintenance becomes a key issue because getting problems resolved requires flying in personnel and accommodating them, which means an additional factoring in of costs and delays due to factors such as accommodation, logistics, visas, and travel.

This is over and above the costs and delays due to feature requests and bug fixes.

So enter Konza.

The planned city is about 60km from Nairobi. I am being encouraged to take up space in Konza and move my company operations there, but my first problem is getting there.

Currently, my office is a five-minute drive from my house. Similarly, my staff is, at most, 30 minutes away from the office. Having us commute to Konza, in typical Mombasa Road traffic, makes no logistical sense.

It is argued that there will be high-speed trains to mitigate this. But there is the issue of getting to the terminals. Where will they be? People will still have to commute to them.

There is also the issue of quality of life. Commuting is a long and draining process. I would like to minimise this for myself and my staff.

My second problem, assuming I have moved my company to Konza, is that my customers are still here.

They are unlikely to move, and even if they do, it would not be to Konza. Physical location is crucial for banks and investment firms.

If we were to move, support, maintenance, and business development would take a hit because my support and business development teams have to commute right back to the CBD they left in the morning en route to Konza.

One of the benefits I have over my competition is that support is just minutes away. Moving to Konza directly jeopardises that.

My third problem is that the Konza initiative does not clearly address some soft issues: employee or employer, we are all ultimately human beings with differing levels of actualisation.

One of my team members is doing ACCAs on a part-time basis. How will he continue to do this from Konza?

For a young demographic, there are social considerations that come into play. Young men and women would like to have coffee with their boyfriends and girlfriends at Java.

These boyfriends and girlfriends usually are in completely different industries. They would then like to watch an IMAX movie, after which they would like to proceed to a KFC for some chicken. How does Konza address this?

Of course the other option is that I could always physically move residence to Konza or its immediate environs, but this introduces a new set of problems; how will I convince my wife to move with me, and be commuting to her job in town?

What about her hairdresser? Her shoe shopping? Her girls’ nights out? Her membership in various initiatives like Rotary, etc?

What do I do about my children and their school? I want them to go to specific schools with a proven track record, and opening a school in Konza will not resolve my concerns.

What social price will I pay, given that my friends (many of whom are not in IT) will remain behind? How will I participate in other initiatives I am involved in such as mentoring, iHub, etc?

In other words, Konza, as a concept, and laudable as it is, depends on the success of many other small initiatives, many of which may not be apparent at first glance and will, therefore, take a while to properly actualise.

However, as with many things, the world will not wait for you to get your ducks in a row.

I have no doubt the government is sincere about Vision 2030, and that Konza will probably eventually work, given enough time.

However what I lack is the luxury of time. This is a dynamic and potentially vicious sector and I cannot be still, waiting for developments.

This is why I feel that, in addition to Konza, there are other avenues that the government can explore with regards to fostering and growing a vibrant ICT sector that can yield results today.

All the poster children for growth like HSBC, Equity, and Seven Seas were at some point small businesses that grew organically.

I feel that a strategy that helps businesses grow right now, that can yield potential results today, is a surer bet towards growing all sectors, not just ICT, and will yield development of all cities today, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Machakos, Bungoma, and Eldoret, and not just Konza in five-plus years.