KENYA

The surveys undertaken in Kenya examined ICT impacts in several dimensions suggested in the emerging literature. The surveys mainly focused on the manufacturing sector and the service sectors in Kenya.

7.4.3.1 Manufacturing Sector:

In the manufacturing sector, the total sample consisted of 61 firms. Ownership characteristics showed that the highest percentage of the firms were Sole Proprietorships (73.8 percent), Partnerships (21.3 percent) and limited concerns (4.9 percent)..

The results showed that only 11.5 percent of enterprises in the manufacturing sector had Internet access, only 3.3 percent of firms had websites and about 1.6 percent and 3.3 percent of firms use electronic data interchange (EDI) and the inventory control software respectively.

Regarding the type of ICT facilities that manufacturers used, the survey yielded low response rates from the sample except for mobile telephones and post boxes. The survey revealed the following results:

• Use of fixed line telephones - 34.4 percent;

• Mobile phones - 70.5 percent;

• Working fax machines - 13.1 percent;

• Use of post boxes - 70.5 percent;

• Working computers - 18.0 percent; and

• Internet connections - 6.6 percent.

Among the respondents, the average numbers of ICT facilities in use per category are plotted in Figure 7.1

The results in the figure above showed that the most important item of which firms use at least one is the postbox, followed by the mobile phone and the fixed line telephone.

Although only about 11 percent of firms had at least one computer, at least 3.3 percent have at least 2 computers and another 3.3 percent also had at least 3 computers. On the other extreme, the leading item in the category ‘none in use’, is Internet connection, followed by fax machines and computers. Overall, less that 5 percent of firms had in use ICT items in excess of one, and when they did, it was the mobile phone or a computer.

It should be understood that functionally, average numbers of ICT items in use did not signify productivity e.g. the numbers of post boxes in use and value added to the firm differed for example from the numbers of computers in use and value added in a firm.

7.4.3.2 Service/Retail Sector:

In the service/retail sector, the total sample consisted of 216 firms. The main ownership characteristics showed that 65.7 percent of the firms were Sole Proprietorships, 24.5 percent were Partnerships and 7.4 percent were limited liability companies.

Figure 7.1: Number of working ICT facilities in the Manufacturing Sector

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0

Percent of fixed telephone lines percent of mobiles

percent of fax percent of post box percent of computer percent of Internet connection

Percent of fixed tel. line s 26.2 8.2 65.6

percent of mobiles 42.6 16.4 4.9 3.3 1.6 1.6 29.5

percent of fax 13.1 86.9

percent of post box 70.5 29.5

percent of computer 11.5 3.3 3.3 82.0

percent of Internet connection 6.6 93.4

1 2 3 5 9 10 none

Regarding Internet access, 25 percent of firms had access to the Internet, which was higher than in the manufacturing sector. Some 5.1 percent of the sample had websites while 1.9 percent used the electronic data interchange (EDI) and 3.3 percent, used the inventory control software.

On the types of ICT facilities that service-sector operators’ used, the survey yielded substantially higher response rates from the sample than in manufacturing, again led by mobile telephones and post boxes. The results showed that 66.7 percent used fixed line telephones; 89.4 percent had working mobiles; 25 percent had working fax machines; 83.8 percent had post boxes; 43.5 percent had working computers and 11.6 percent had an Internet connection.

Figure 7.2 below shows the average number of working ICT facilities that firms had. Overall, the average numbers of ICT facilities in use in the service sector were substantially higher than in manufacturing. Access to important ICT items such as Internet was low. However, from the results, the most important item of which service sector firms used at least one was the postbox, followed by mobile phones, fixed line telephones, computers and faxes. For firms that had more than one item, that extra item was most likely to be a mobile phone or a computer. Even then, the average number of working computers in use was highest (4.5 percent) followed by working mobile phones (3.2 percent) and working fixed telephone lines (2.5 percent). This pattern replicated usage in the manufacturing sector. The leading items of the ‘none in use’ category were the Internet, the fax and the computer, in that order.

Figure 7.2: Working ICT items – Services Sector

Source: Survey Data 7.4.3.3 Lessons from the survey

From the survey, it was evident that ICT infrastructure and intensity of use differed amongst the economic sectors depending on nature of business and need for product specialization.

Of the indicators above, e-mail and web use were leaders within the manufacturing and service sectors relative to computer usage. However, web use was higher in the service

sector than in manufacturing and a much higher rate of employees used computers in the service sector (40 percent more) than they did in manufacturing.

Firms that provided ICT services proved to be the heaviest users of both websites and e-mail.

In both the real estate and the hotel and restaurant sectors, about 70 percent of firms used ICT applications to interact with clients and suppliers. The Kenya findings were roughly similar to global patterns. In the pattern, relative intensity in the service sector was high. About 67 percent of employees in the accounting and finance sector used computers, the highest percentage in any sector.

The findings of the survey show that the service sector employed larger numbers of ICT items than did the manufacturing sector. In the ‘at le ast one item in use’ category, the service sector led manufacturing in all items except mobile phones, where further scrutiny showed that the service sector had greater numbers in other ‘more than one ‘ categories, and reported only 10.6 percent ‘none in use’ compared to 29.5 percent in manufacturing.