Kenya’s government yesterday awarded KSh27.9 million (approx US$321,000) to support digital villages known as Pasha Centers that it set up in 2011. Up to 26 entrepreneurs benefited from the award pocketing an average of KSh1 million (approx US$11,900).
Speaking at the award ceremony, the permanent secretary in the ministry of Information and communication Dr. Bitange Ndemo said there was little internet penetration in the rural areas in Kenya.
“Connectivity has been a problem, even when we celebrate the coming of 3G, it is not spread throughout the country,” he said.
The Pasha Centers offer various internet related services in remote rural Kenya. This is in line with the government’s ambition to spread connectivity throughout the country.
Entrepreneurs apply for grants to set up these centre and they are given seed money by the government according to the location they are going to set up.
“We have been very slow in content especially in the Pasha Centres that were set up earlier,” Dr. Ndemo said, “our cultures are under threat because we have refused to capture them in formats that our children would come to read about in the years to come.”
The country has seen over four optic fibre cables in the country. Kenya is ranked second in Africa with the fastest broadband connection.
