The local universities and tertiary colleges continue to develop ICT human capital and workforce that is neither guided by a human resource
development policy nor well aligned to the industry needs, especially
at the high end. This Master Plan suggests mechanism for developing
and sustaining high-end talent by removing the skills gap between
industry requirements and the capabilities of the local workforce. This
includes reducing the need for foreign expertise in ICT projects, retaining current high-end talent, and creating a mechanism for effective skills transfer and training.
2.9 ICT Industry Contribution to GDP
Source: Information economy report, 2012
ICT Spending in $ millions
Total
Table 1 shows spending in various aspect of IT in Kenya compared to
Senegal, South Africa, Brazil and Portugal. As noted, Kenya spent
9.3% of its total ICT budget on computer software and services.
South Africa ranks highest with 22.4% of its ICT budget going to computer software and services while Senegal spends only 3.1%.
BPO technopark
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Services
Computer,
software
and
services
As a percentage
As a percentage
of total
ICT
spending
of GDP
Year
Kenya
3,178
111
184
295
9.3%
0.8%
2009
Senegal
2,570
28
50
78
3.1%
0.6%
2009
37,524
2844
5574
8417
22.4%
2.2%
2010
104,46
3069
9310
12,379
11.9%
0.7%
2010
1,387
1,408
2,795
17.2%
1.1%
2010
Brazil
Table 1:
Comparative
Table of ICT
Spending
6
Portugal
According to Mckinsey (2013), the internet sector contributed 2.9% of
Kenya’s GDP, and 3.5% of Senegal’s GDP in 2012, both out performing
South Africa whose contribution to the GDP was 1.4%.
Software
Computer software
and services spending
16,299
In Kenya, ICT is not yet considered as a sector in the yearly economic
survey reports. It is classified under ‘Transport, Storage and Communications’ as in ISIC Rev. 4. It therefore becomes very difficult to
track the contribution of ICT to development as a single sector unlike in many countries where ICT is defined as a stand-alone sector.
The most popular classification used to define ICT as a sector in all
economic activities is the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) Rev. 4. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and has
started migrating to ISIC Rev. 4 and would, in collaboration with Communications Agency of Kenya (CAK), carry out a national data collection on ICT indicators based on this classification in 2014/2015. This
Master Plan recommends that ICT be set up as a stand-alone sector and comprehensive ICT indicators be used to monitor the growth
of the sector. Annex 3 shows the recommended ICT indicators. The
KNBS/CAK data collection and analysis in 2014/2015 and in subsequent years should be guided by Annex 3.
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Towards a Digital Kenya
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