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The study, commissioned by the Kenya ICT Board’s monitoring and evaluation team, integrates fieldwork and reviews of secondary research to establish critical baselines with regard to the development and advancement of ICT industry in the country.
The Julisha II Survey will be released barelya week after the ministry launched the National ICT Master Plan, which is expected to guide the government on areas to invest on, as well as on how to make Kenya an attractive business destination.
“Most decision makers in ICT will find this a true digest of information,” Paul Kukubo, Kenya ICT Board CEO, said.
It is in addition expected to be the yardstick for investors with a number of players in the ICT field scheduled to grace the occasion, including Director of IBM Research Africa Kamal Bhattacharya.
In the last survey that tracked the market in 2011, it was revealed that Kenya’s market size figure was US$740 million with 78 percent hardware, 9 percent software and 12 percent services, with an estimation that it could get to US$1 billion by 2013. The compound annual growth rate was placed at 18 percent.
The results also tracked skills requirements and indicated that Kenya would need another 10,000 IT professionals in the next 3 years to meet sector needs.
The survey identified the greatest skill shortages to be in software development and IT project management.
“With the arrival of broadband connectivity through submarine cable systems, the Kenyan IT market and indeed many business sectors are to grow rapidly; allowing for the introduction of new and advanced services, further setting the stage for the development of ICT as a valid contributor to Kenya’s GDP,” the Kenya ICT Board explained.
Advancement of ICT skills has remained a constant issue to be addressed by the industry’s stakeholders, which includes the government, vendors and users. Partnerships by the public‐private, vendors and government to launch facilities for technology and knowledge transfer have continued to gain momentum, particularly in view of the country’s long-term plans to make ICT a major sector of the Kenyan economy.
