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Konza city Reality.
Rank: Veteran Joined: 4/16/2010 Posts: 906 Location: Nairobi
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As a startup founder, here are my two cents:
Konza is not a startup hub, it is a BPO hub. Take a quick look at the architecture plans and you will find that BPO has been given a disproportionate amount of land. Also, if you hear Ndemo public speaking, you will quickly realise that BPO is the government's topmost priority in ICT. Startups are further down the pecking order.
I believe this is the wrong path to take. BPO is a market that has long been cornered by South East Asia. This makes the BPO sector a slow growth area , which will turn many institutional investors off.
Despite all this, I don't hold anything against the government, because you don't need government assistance to become a startup hub.
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Rank: Member Joined: 1/27/2012 Posts: 851 Location: Nairobi
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KenyanLyrics wrote:As a startup founder, here are my two cents:
Konza is not a startup hub, it is a BPO hub. Take a quick look at the architecture plans and you will find that BPO has been given a disproportionate amount of land. Also, if you hear Ndemo public speaking, you will quickly realise that BPO is the government's topmost priority in ICT. Startups are further down the pecking order.
I believe this is the wrong path to take. BPO is a market that has long been cornered by South East Asia. This makes the BPO sector a slow growth area , which will turn many institutional investors off.
Despite all this, I don't hold anything against the government, because you don't need government assistance to become a startup hub. I think the focus on BPO is the right approach,more employment opportunities. Focusing on start-ups,how is that possible? How will that attract investors to match the space and at the same time create employment? A single BPO can create hundreds if not thousands of job in a short span of time, how about start-ups? How many "start-ups" are we even talking about? How can you project the number of start-ups we'll have in lets say 10 yrs? South East Asia has cornered that market, true, but as their economies advance farther, their costs will go up. They will concentrate on the high-end stuff,Kenya will be ready to feed on their "left-overs", the low-end stuff they are making now. You can't go "high-end" with our economy. We need something that employs the masses. Remember even "Made In Japan" was once branded as cheap, sub-standard, so did "Made In South Korea". How about today? Today's "Made In China" will one day be "state of the art". You got to start from somewhere. We start with BPO, then those low end phones, computers, consoles etc will come. Then start ups will have grown in numbers. We got to be ready coz the time is here.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 4/16/2010 Posts: 906 Location: Nairobi
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I'm sorry, but investors don't look at employment opportunities when deciding what to put money in. In fact, the more bloated your workforce needs to be, the less scalable a business is, and the less lucrative the opportunity for investors.
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Rank: Member Joined: 1/27/2012 Posts: 851 Location: Nairobi
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KenyanLyrics wrote:I'm sorry, but investors don't look at employment opportunities when deciding what to put money in. In fact, the more bloated your workforce needs to be, the less scalable a business is, and the less lucrative the opportunity for investors. We are talking about BPO, not any other kind of investment here. BPO creates more opportunities. We can't focus on space shuttle,investors might be willing to put their money, but for WHAT benefit to Kenyans? You don't seek investors for the sake, you go for big impact. BPO offers that. More than designing the next generation keyboard for example. Also as a country, our focus is not what's best for the investor, but what's best for Kenya.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 1,668 Location: nairobi
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Kenya should learn from China. See the example below for Youtube. FYI youtube can not be accessed from China. They have created their own called youku http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzU1NzgzMzEy.html To enable such ideas, it will require sober political leadership who understand the importance of consuming local goods and services and the dangers of consuming imported goods as explained here http://en.wikipedia.org/..._of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
For starters, Konza should look for Kenyan Financial Advisors to replace Worldbank IFC and the London based architects/master planners. As Iron Sharpens Iron, So one Man Sharpens Another.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 2/26/2012 Posts: 15,980
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a4architect.com wrote:Kenya should learn from China. See the example below for Youtube. FYI youtube can not be accessed from China. They have created their own called youku http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzU1NzgzMzEy.html To enable such ideas, it will require sober political leadership who understand the importance of consuming local goods and services and the dangers of consuming imported goods as explained here http://en.wikipedia.org/..._of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
For starters, Konza should look for Kenyan Financial Advisors to replace Worldbank IFC and the London based architects/master planners. I see you have changed your mind on konza. Ok so give us reasons why the worldbank should not be involved and why the change of heart. "There are only two emotions in the market, hope & fear. The problem is you hope when you should fear & fear when you should hope: - Jesse Livermore
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Rank: Elder Joined: 10/13/2009 Posts: 1,950 Location: in kenya
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mkeiy wrote:KenyanLyrics wrote:I'm sorry, but investors don't look at employment opportunities when deciding what to put money in. In fact, the more bloated your workforce needs to be, the less scalable a business is, and the less lucrative the opportunity for investors. We are talking about BPO, not any other kind of investment here. BPO creates more opportunities. We can't focus on space shuttle,investors might be willing to put their money, but for WHAT benefit to Kenyans? You don't seek investors for the sake, you go for big impact. BPO offers that. More than designing the next generation keyboard for example. Also as a country, our focus is not what's best for the investor, but what's best for Kenya. Actually when you are attracting foreign investors/FDI you should focus on what is best for the investor.For instance. -Ease of doing business-Its a pity that the reforms that were being put in place to reduce the time of registering a company has stalled..its tedious and expensive to set up a business here in Kenya.Why cant we have a one stop station where an investor can get everything he needs to set up shop. -Electricity -we have a very unreliable power supply that relies mostly on hydro during the dry seasons the power tariffs are very high and sometime we have to deal with rationing...That alone makes Kenya uncompetitive. -Inflation -The government is unable to control this the erratic movement of the rate of inflation makes it difficult for companies to control costs. Supply chain- our ports and other transport system need an overhaul,the congestion in our ports and roads and delays at our airports need to be addressed urgently. Finally last week we had a cable cut and the internet speed was slow in almost all major players...Contegency plans need to be put in place to protect BPO operators from such outages '......to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' Colossians 2:2-3
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Rank: Member Joined: 1/27/2012 Posts: 851 Location: Nairobi
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selah wrote:mkeiy wrote:KenyanLyrics wrote:I'm sorry, but investors don't look at employment opportunities when deciding what to put money in. In fact, the more bloated your workforce needs to be, the less scalable a business is, and the less lucrative the opportunity for investors. We are talking about BPO, not any other kind of investment here. BPO creates more opportunities. We can't focus on space shuttle,investors might be willing to put their money, but for WHAT benefit to Kenyans? You don't seek investors for the sake, you go for big impact. BPO offers that. More than designing the next generation keyboard for example. Also as a country, our focus is not what's best for the investor, but what's best for Kenya. Actually when you are attracting foreign investors/FDI you should focus on what is best for the investor.For instance. -Ease of doing business-Its a pity that the reforms that were being put in place to reduce the time of registering a company has stalled..its tedious and expensive to set up a business here in Kenya.Why cant we have a one stop station where an investor can get everything he needs to set up shop. -Electricity -we have a very unreliable power supply that relies mostly on hydro during the dry seasons the power tariffs are very high and sometime we have to deal with rationing...That alone makes Kenya uncompetitive. -Inflation -The government is unable to control this the erratic movement of the rate of inflation makes it difficult for companies to control costs. Supply chain- our ports and other transport system need an overhaul,the congestion in our ports and roads and delays at our airports need to be addressed urgently. Finally last week we had a cable cut and the internet speed was slow in almost all major players...Contegency plans need to be put in place to protect BPO operators from such outages Q aelah, What's your point? I don't get it. But i will repeat,as a country you look at what's best for the country. When all those bottlenecks are addressed, who benefits MORE? Kenyans is say, Kenyans. If we assume three factors of production,1.LAND 2. LABOR. 3.CAPITAL [that may include but not limited to,machinery,finance,human capital]. the rewards for the first two, should outweigh the investor's reward which is PROFIT! The first two, land and labor is what i'm talking about. As a gov't you just CAN'T focus on making the investor rich at the expense of the first two factors of production. Wages and Rents[including taxes] have to be more than the profits.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 1,668 Location: nairobi
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murchr wrote:a4architect.com wrote:Kenya should learn from China. See the example below for Youtube. FYI youtube can not be accessed from China. They have created their own called youku http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzU1NzgzMzEy.html To enable such ideas, it will require sober political leadership who understand the importance of consuming local goods and services and the dangers of consuming imported goods as explained here http://en.wikipedia.org/..._of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
For starters, Konza should look for Kenyan Financial Advisors to replace Worldbank IFC and the London based architects/master planners. I see you have changed your mind on konza. Ok so give us reasons why the worldbank should not be involved and why the change of heart. @murchr The reasons why Worldbank should not be involved are 1. Worldbank advised Ministry of Info to buy 5000 acres instead of using other JV options such as partnering with EA Portland cement with 14000 acres of vacant land next to Konza city. The 1 Billion tax payer money could then have been used to lay fiber optic cable e.t.c 2. World bank advised Ministry of Info to hire London based Architects and town planners instead of local architects. This is costly due to logistics costs and has resulted in 2 months delay since the London based architects did not advice Ministry of Info on Physical planning act requirements. 3. Kenya gets exposed to poverty creation risks as outlined in this book below http://en.wikipedia.org/...s_of_an_Economic_Hit_ManAs Iron Sharpens Iron, So one Man Sharpens Another.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 1,668 Location: nairobi
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http://www.standardmedia...d=470¤tPage=2
Is Kenya Ready for Mega Cities? Published on 07/09/2011 Flagship projects Phase one of the development includes a BPO park, five-star hotels, a stadium and social amenities typical of a modern city. International Design Engineers and Pell Frischmann (London) came up with master planning options for the project while local information communication technology consultants, Summit Strategies Limited, prepared a preliminary market demand data for the BPO sector. The International Finance Corporation — part of the World Bank — commissioned international consultants to study the master plan. The consultants are also to scrutinise its economic viability and develop a detailed development proposal for the 20-year multi-billion shilling project. Ndemo says the development that is among the Vision 2030 flagship projects will host several skyscrapers. As Iron Sharpens Iron, So one Man Sharpens Another.
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