Christmas is almost here and as you travel upcountry, some of you might not find it hard to navigate the cyberspace anymore. The Kenya ICT Board has set aside KES 27 million to set up digital villages, known as Pasha Centres, across the country before end of this year. However, the money, which is part of a revolving fund from the World Bank, will only support 27 entrepreneurs from last year’s 37. The digital villages will help build IT capacity in the rural areas and transform Kenya’s economy into knowledge based one.
Through the support from the World Bank, 63 centres in various constituencies have already been established. Mr. Kwame Shiroya, a programme assistant Kenya ICT Board said in a statement that the board has been able to loan funds to 37 entrepreneurs who were in charge of running the already established 63 digital villages, with the long term target being 210 constituencies.
The digital villages will provide you with services such as printing, Internet browsing, agency banking and other IT services in their respective rural areas, thus narrowing down the the digital divide in the country, since the ICT sector is currently more active in urban areas, resulting in wide regional disparities in the distribution of ICT facilities.