ICT Board to raise Kenya's competitiveness ranking

The Kenya ICT Board has embarked on an aggressive campaign to ensure that Kenya features in the 2009 Business Software Alliance (BSA) IT competitiveness index, said Paul Kukubo, the board's CEO.

The index is compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on behalf of BSA and provides details of how the ICT industry has grown in 66 countries. The index was established last year.

"I am in touch with the EIU team, and we need to put Kenya on their radar," Kukubo said. "This will be done once the ICT Board's final strategic plan for implementation is completed, as well as the ICT policy and Vision 2030; these documents assist in communicating our actions to the world."

Out of 66 countries, the only African countries included on the index are Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. These countries also have higher Internet penetration rates than Kenya, according to a 2003 World Bank report.

Africa is largely not included because of the low level of information available, said Mwende Njiraini, a telecommunications engineer. However, this being the second year of the index, there is hope that more African countries will be included with time, he said.

In benchmarking the industry, the EIU evaluated the countries' investments in people and sourcing talent locally, as well as the issue of "brain drain." Legal regimes were evaluated, and the U.S., Australia and Western European countries retained their positions as the world's most effective systems of intellectual-property protection.

Kukubo admitted that Kenya will have to work hard in all areas, as the index takes holistic views of countries in terms of total IT readiness, including human capacity development, research and development expenditure, and the legal regime in place.

The report pointed out that high-quality infrastructure and liberalization are important to the development of the IT industry. Many countries in Africa have archaic infrastructure and are yet to fully liberalize the sector.

"IT industries in the index top tier all derive substantial benefit from the high-quality networks developed through competition, but more telecoms liberalization is needed in less developed regions to spur infrastructure development," the report stated.

The report also noted that competitive broadband markets help cultivate strong IT sectors. Without fast, reliable and secure Internet access, technology firms cannot interact effectively with partners and the research community, nor can they sell their services online, it stated.

South Africa ranked 37 out of 66 countries, as it did last year, making it the highest-ranked country in Africa.