Techies Launch Assault on Content Market

It’s Wednesday evening last week in Nairobi.

Against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset, the tinkling and chinking of glasses and laughter mingle with the sound of mouses clicking and laptops powering up at an office on Ngong Road.

Gathered in a small room (standing space only), are members of a tech glitterati; ranging from captains of industry and parastatal CEOs to young and energetic university students.

It’s the official launch of iHub, a new initiative that aims to support the local tech community to inject creativity and innovation through mentorship and entrepreneurship.

“iHub is the first of its kind in Kenya. It provides a physical nexus point for the tech community to meet, interact and create new products and services in the web and mobile space in Nairobi,” said Jessica Colaco, iHub’s manager. For the uninitiated, the concept might seem far-fetched: a dedicated resource centre for techies?

Industry players are billing the development of iHub — contraction for Innovation Hub — as the strongest attempt yet at tapping into IT skills for the growth of the sector identified as a key driver of the economy.

Last year, it emerged that the country made more income from content exports — think of university kids developing applications for IT big shots like Apple, Disney or even Microsoft — than it did from other segments in the industry.

Analysts reckon with content development raking in an estimated Sh800 million in 2009, the sector is silently taking the glitz away from Kenya’s other hot technology spot: business process outsourcing (BPO).

The outsourcing opportunity informed the government’s decision to tag BPOs as a key component of its economic pillar in its economic blueprint Vision 2030.

But critics have faulted the policy minds, saying BPO was only a subset of the ubiquitous ICT, which would have been the key pillar.

Perhaps learning fast, the Information Ministry now says it is widening its definition under the Vision 2030 manifesto to include other ICT services such as software development and animation.

A number of factors explain Kenya’s rising profile as a content development haven in the region.

Analysts say that the arrival of fibre optic connectivity last year allowed the growing local content community to gain more access to vital international contacts.

Improved Internet connectivity means shorter delivery times for projects, faster identification of opportunities, and quicker collaboration or networking.