Businesses in Kenya do not engage enough with Online audiences. This was the reaction sensitised by majority of speakers during the first day of Google Kenya 2nd annual web and mobile conference ongoing at the Westgate Cinemax, Nairobi.
Research carried out by Google states that majority of SMEs in Kenya don’t have time to create Websites as a tool to market and advertise themselves online.
“Being digitally present makes a business better,” says Ayite Gaba, Business Development Associate at Google. According to Gaba, digital presence goes beyond accessing the Internet via PCs alone, to the mobile devices. More and more people can access the Internet through their mobile devices. The Internet, Gaba said, “presents a great opportunity for local businesses to take advantage of.”
The Kenya Government continues to support the digital appetite in the country by introducing a digital economy policy. In his remarks, the PS at the Ministry of Information and Communication, Dr. Bitange Ndemo, stated that initially the government was focused on the supply side of connectivity, working hard to ensure that Kenya is connected through fibre and broadband. The government is at the moment moving towards the demand side — availing local content in the Internet.
Google’s Getting Kenya Businesses Online (GKBO) initiative is looking to grow 50,000 businesses domains per year to balance the number of providers and consumers online, the company said.
