Seeking high-tech solution to poverty

With an average salary of under $800 a year, Kenya is ranked near the bottom when it comes to per capita income. But, if Bitange Ndemo has his way, the country will use technology as its ladder to prosperity. Ndemo, permanent secretary of the country's Ministry of Information and Communications, is optimistic that Kenya's relatively well-educated -- it has a 92 percent literacy rate -- and English-speaking population will leapfrog 20th-century technologies and cash in on mobile broadband.

While most Kenyans work in agriculture, information technology is key to the government's plan to transform the nation from an agrarian to a service-based economy. That includes call centers, software development and light industry.

In 2007, the government drafted what it calls "Vision 2030," a plan that includes greater government transparency and accountability as well as economic, social and political reforms. To that end, Kenya is launching "open data" websites to make government data "accessible to the people."  In partnership with the World Bank and Nokia, the country has created an "m-lab" [m:lab east africa] to incubate mobile application startups. In June, m-lab sponsored a mobile apps developers conference and a contest that recognized 25 East African app developers, read on: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_19047826