Revamp digital villages

A digital village in Garissa, North Eastern Province. Photo/FILE

News that lack of funding has held back several rural digital village initiatives is worrying given the urgent need for wider reach of ICT solutions in the country.

Reports from several investors in rural digital centres indicate that their operations are grinding to a halt as they are unable to source funds to start and maintain their businesses, despite apparent demand for technology services.

This is dismal news, considering the time and effort that has been put into the digital villages projects by both the government and the private sector.

The digital village concept was first conceptualised years ago by the Information ministry, as part of a digital inclusion strategy aimed at easing access to technology in rural areas.

It has, however, struggled to achieve the grand vision that its creators had for it, which was to create outlets in each county where users could interact with technology.

The centres are expected to act as hubs where users can access internet services, obtain educational material, participate in mobile and agency banking as well as money transfers, and act as a general centre where citizens can use technology to interact with the government.

The eventual target is to have 210 centres, one in each constituency by 2012.

A noble proposal in theory, but hard questions now need to be asked to establish exactly why the project is yet to take off several years after its proposal.

If the reports coming from existing centres are to be believed, it appears that successful implementation of the concept takes more than just providing access to finances.

Choosing the right suppliers and technology providers are key to this initiative’s success.

All in all, it might be prudent for the Information ministry to publish a publicly accessible audit of the digital village project in order to allow for appropriate opportunity to widely review and in some cases, revamp the plans to digitise Kenya.

The fast changing pace of technology use in the country may make some projects redundant, while in some cases, it may call for a total overhaul of plans.

While the Information ministry has shown that it has the temerity to see through similar projects through its successes with digitising crucial government functions, it needs as a matter of urgency, to turn its attention to making grass-roots programmes like the digital village concept work.

It may be useful to count being able to track applications for passports and ID cards online or publish results for major national examinations, but these drives will amount to little if they do not filter down to the common man.