“There are two Equalizers in life Educatetion and the Internet” JOHN CHAMBERS, President and Chief Executive of Cisco systems

ICT Consultants had an eventful year 2009, in the emerging area of e- marketing and against the backdrop of the recently amended Information Communication Act that now governs the legal aspects of e-Commerce in Kenya.

ICT Consultants recognizes the importance of E-commerce given that it took the-

• Telephone 38 years to reach 50 million users
• Television 13 years to reach 50 million users
• Internet 4 years to reach 50 million users!

The company continues to offer specialized consultancy services on e-commerce.

There are still numerous challenges with regards to the Kenyan market as Kenyans are not yet able to interact and conduct e-commerce without serious restrictions.

This is a matter that should be treated with the seriousness required as internet sales hit an estimated $62.7 billion in 2007, up 26% from 2006.

A significant amount of this trade was conducted and paid using Pay Pal. Pay Pal is an “e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet” However it will not accept payments from Kenyan debit or visa cards. Consequently this makes it next to impossible for Kenyans to get involved in the electronic trading.

Private ICT companies and stakeholders will have to engage the government more specifically the Ministries of Information and Trade and how to resolve the Pay Pal impasse.

Understandably there must be reservations regarding fraud and identity theft. If there are regulations that need to be put into place then we must ensure that it is done as soon as possible as time does not wait for anyone.

Other challenges are the internet usage in Africa, at only 3.9 percent compared to the largest internet user Asia at 42.2 %. Given that mobile usage is amongst the highest in the world and growing rapidly educating people on how to use the internet should be our number one priority.