Kenya's New Broadband Connection Could Revolutionize East Africa

                An internet cafe in Moyale, Kenya

More young Africans than ever before could find work as call center clerks in virtual world offices as Seacom finally brings a reliable broadband connection to Africa.

The arrival of Africa’s first heavy-duty internet connection may help solve the burgeoning unemployment gap in Kenya and East Africa as a whole.

Pixels and Policy takes a look at how the arrival of low-cost, reliable Internet in Kenya will do more for the country than allow a whole new crop of World of Warcraft accounts.

Bridging Population Gaps with Virtual Offices

One of Africa’s most intractable problems is the unbalanced distribution of its population. In Kenya, for example, the majority of Kenyans work in rural fields and cart their wares a significant distance into the capital of Nairobi or the port city of Mombasa.

Since families hand land down through generations and one farm can have decades of family ties, rural workers are hesitant to abandon the profession that is their lives.

This leads to substandard wages and poor education in rural areas while jobs go unfilled due to a lack of skilled young workers in urban centers.

As FutureBlogger notes, the arrival of broadband could cut through the problem of physical distance by bringing education to rural centers and service-industry jobs to the farm. Writer Marisa Vitols elaborates:

1. Education: Getting kids online will afford them access to information and virtual learning. As opposed to many physical African schools, the web actually has resources, cutting-edge information, and teachers up-to-date with current technologies.

2. Economic Infrastructure: Getting adults online is like getting them to a job – and one that actually pays. How many people could work in virtual worlds or do some of the more-or-less simple administrative tasks already being outsourced to developing nations?

Both are valid points, and as we covered earlier this week when ClaseMovil announced its virtual education program for Latin American students, there is an expanding market interest in using the distance-bridging power of the internet and virtual worlds to educate and employ those traditionally left out by distance or poverty.

Virtual Worlds, Real Jobs

So, what does this mean for Africa? Big things. According to the CIA, 40% of Kenya is unemployed and 50% are below the poverty line. If even 2% of these unemployed could find work in one of the many virtual call centers springing up, nearly one million Kenyans could be pulled from poverty and into employment.

Computers could replace outdated or nonexistent technology
in Kenyan schools. Image courtesy of www.WhiteHouse.gov

Employment is meaningful when many Kenyans die of preventable diseases and illnesses of poverty. Expect to see Kenyans ready to jump at any opportunity to do work that supplements their often subsistence rural income.

For a nation with a work force of only 17 million, the internet and access to virtual worlds means a lot more than a chance to play World of Warcraft.

But how would these impoverished rural Kenyans gain access to the internet? Turn to some of the many international nonprofits currently outfitting Kenya with functional computer and telecommunications systems.

High unemployment and disillusionment with the Kenyan government led to bloody riots in late 2007. With access to the internet and the job and educational tools it provides, suddenly the daunting task of bringing Kenya’s education and employment up to educational standards seems a little easier.

The arrival of broadband presents Kenya with its best opportunity in decades to save and improve millions of lives.