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Companies see silver lining in export of services
| Information technology and multimedia sectors are creating a new export window for Kenya through supply of products and services to the international market.
Software developers, 3D artists and animation professionals are gearing up to tap into the services export sector, a sector, according to research by a regional IT consultant, Muriuki Mureithi, has been growing over the years, but remains not fully exploited.
The research conducted in 2007, notes that between 2002 and 2006 there was a decrease in the exports for goods while that for service grew.
“Export for goods is subsequently decreasing,” said Mr Mureithi.
“This is an indication that even though the contribution of IT and financial services is insignificant in the overall GDP it has potential for growth.”
Within the period, the contribution of goods fell from 74.58 per cent to 63.52 per cent while those of services increased from 24.42 to 36.6 per cent.
Analysts say to fully tap into this service export sector, industries in IT and finance have to come up with innovations that will compete and attract consumers in the international market.
Craft Silicon, a local software development company, HomeBoyz, media and entertainment company and JJ people, a subsidiary of UK Company JJ World that trains open source software developers are among the companies exploiting this new area.
Craft Silicon has already penetrated the market by supplying locally developed Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Asia, Eastern Europe Central and Latin America.
The company’s CEO, Kamal Budhabhatti, says the company last year made $4 million from exporting the software, but looks forward to double the figure by the end of this year.
Mr Budhabhatti says his company has been able to penetrate the market faster because most companies focus on large organisations, leaving a gap in the SME sector.
“Emerging markets forms a huge market for software developers and this is mainly driven by SMEs,” he says.
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