.mobi Policy Advisory Board

[Adam Peake]

At 5:38 PM -0200 11/26/05, Carlos Afonso wrote:
>I agree we should worry about it, but I am not sure about Adam's
>example. It looks like a commercial service to me -- with a pinch of
>social responsibility etc. There are many examples of people working
>on ICT for development who are not necessarily companies, so let us
>discuss this further. Of course there may be companies worth getting
>involved in this, but let us take a good look at ourselves
>(non-profits) first.


Idea is that it's sustainable, not just relying on donor funds.
Perhaps look at OneWorld rather than OKN Mobile itself. Alice
Wanjira, new ALAC member, may have some ideas.

An article about the project below.

Adam


April 19, 2005

Kenyans Text Messaging Their Way to Jobs
By REUTERS

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - In the rural parts of Kenya, jobseekers
wishing to use the Internet used to have to travel long distances to
the nearest town with a cyber cafe.

That changed last year with the creation of OneWorld International, a
Kenyan firm offering a mobile phone text messaging service that
advertises jobs and allows candidates to apply from wherever they are.

``It's relatively easy. All you need is access to a mobile phone with
a Safaricom connection,'' said Antony Mwaniki, OneWorld
International's business manager.

``The moment we get a job advertisement and put it on the system, it
is automatically sent to the subscriber's phone as a text message,''
he told Reuters.

Safaricom, one of Kenya's two mobile phone service providers, is a
subsidiary of state-owned Telkom Kenya and Vodafone Group Plc , whose
charitable arm helped set up the service.

The text message costs just 3 Kenya shillings (4 U.S. cents). The
Internet, often slow and unreliable in Kenya, is at least 10
shillings, with an additional per-minute charge of one shilling.

Kenya's official unemployment rate is nearly 15 percent, with many
people on poverty-line wages in the informal sector.

When a new government was elected in late 2002, it promised to fight
poverty and create new jobs in east Africa's largest economy, where
corruption and poor economic growth has deterred the foreign
investment needed to kick-start growth.

PHONES MORE WIDESPREAD

Statistics from the communications regulatory board, Communications
Commission of Kenya (CCK), show that there are about half a million
Internet users in Kenya. Of these, 90 percent live in the capital
Nairobi.

On the other hand, CCK said there are 3 million mobile phone users in
the country of 30 million.

Mwaniki added that one mobile phone is often shared by several
people, especially in the rural areas, so the numbers could actually
be higher.

He said the rapid broadcast to so many potential employees at once
means employers get a much faster response than via the Internet,
where jobseekers often look at message boards and applications
trickle in as they see the ads.

``This morning I was reading an e-mail from one employer who put out
an advertisement on Thursday morning. By Thursday afternoon, they had
already short-listed candidates,'' Mwaniki said.

The service targets mostly low paid, unskilled jobs.

``We are actually doing the lower cadre jobs,'' he said, adding that
the most sought-after people were drivers, salespeople and house
helps.

Among the companies that using the service are a soda bottling
company, a new cinema chain and a promotion company.

``I was using their service to recruit lower-cadre workers for us.
The service has an advantage. It reaches as many people as possible
within the shortest time,'' said Kenneth Kimani, who worked in human
resources at Softa Bottling Company.

Mwaniki said that the company has at least 5,000 subscribers using
the job search service in Kenya.

OneWorld, which employs seven people, also uses the service to
distribute health information, especially about HIV/AIDS and breast
cancer.