World Bank funds aim at standards adoption in Africa

The World Bank has released a US$1.5 million grant for adoption of software standards by Kenya developers, a move expected to improve the global appeal of local software developers.

The development of software standards is part of regional efforts to help local developers gain global recognition.

The grant will be disbursed through tenders to be advertised widely. The local software industry is expected to benefit from the Kenya ICT Board's collaboration with global brands such as Oracle and Red Hat.

"The missing link has always been in standards; it takes a while for a company to be convinced that the local developer is capable of delivering an internationally acceptable product," said Paul Kukubo, CEO of the Kenya ICT Board.

"We have had meetings with Oracle and Red Hat regarding local standards and ways that can benefit local developers," added Kukubo. "Red Hat will launch its academy in Nairobi in November this year, which will give developers access to training and certification."

"The best thing is that there is a lot of attention on the Kenyan software environment internationally; this year I have met four students from Stanford and University of California Berkeley coming here to research on the software industry," said Wilfred Mworia, a software developer and founder of afrinnovator.com, a site set up to aid startups.

Ken Kasina, a leading Kenyan coder, feels that there is talent in the software industry that can compete with countries like India, but there are political and funding problems.

"We have lost coders to international companies abroad. I have seen coders move to careers in accounting, investment banking and other businesses which are not tech-related," added Kasina, who is working with other developers on ushahidi.com, an open-source platform for monitoring social issues and problems such as election-related violence.

"Many are times developers would like to get together and work on products that can benefit the general public, but when you have to think of food and how to pay rent, the projects don't go far," added Kasina.

Politics also comes into play when huge government contracts are awarded to international companies at big fees. The large companies then outsource some of the work to local developers at lower fees.

Nevertheless, big international players can be a source of inspiration.

"If you go to universities in USA, you learn and hear from major companies that started out of garages or people's bedrooms from Google to Microsoft and Twitter and many more, and it is very easy for one to be immediately inspired to start something," said Mworia.

"Things here are very different in Kenya, the idea of a massively successful software/tech startup seems rather remote because there are no 'cases' to point out," Mworia added.

However, the region has benefited from global brands such as Nokia, Microsoft and Google, which have sought to involve local developers. To spur Web application development, Google has launched the G-Africa Initiative, a series of events in sub-Saharan Africa for software developers.

The first G-Africa event will be held in Mauritius next week and will showcase opportunities for software developers as well as marketing professionals and entrepreneurs.

The G-Africa Initiative is designed to bring local developers together and provide a venue for Google engineers and Web development leaders to offer in-depth sessions on the latest Google technologies including App Engine, Maps API, YouTube and OpenSocial.

The initiative will also be a marketing opportunity, with Google product demonstrations aimed at entrepreneurs in small or medium-size businesses.