How can the Universal Service Fund best benefit Kenyans?
What you need to know:
- Access to communication services is a right for every Kenyan, including those who can't afford them
- In Kenya, big money tends to attract instant — and often destructive — political interest, and the USAC is will definitely deal with that sooner rather than later.
Recently the government gazetted members of the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC). This organ will have ultimate control over billions of shillings collected from companies within the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors.
The Kenya Information and Communication Act (2013) states that the USAC shall advise the Communication Authority and provide strategic policy guidance for the administration and implementation of the Universal Service Fund (USF).
The Fund was established earlier by the Kenya Communication Amendment Act of 2009. Clause 84(j) states that “the purpose of the fund shall be to support widespread access to, support capacity building and promote innovation in information and communications technology services.”
The same clause further states: “There shall be a universal service levy (in this Part referred to as the “levy”) that shall be charged by the Commission on the licensees under this Act for purposes of the Universal Service Fund.”
SERIOUS MONEY
This clause effectively gives the USAC the powers to decide the amount to levy the operators within the ICT sector for purposes of building the USF.
Let us assume that the council decides to levy only two per cent of annual revenues on all operators, content providers and broadcasters. This will translate into serious money, considering that these entities post billions of shillings in revenues every year.
Collecting the money is actually the easy part. Making good use of it, however, will remain a challenging task if the perennial intrigues at NSSF and other public entities are anything to go by.
In Kenya, big money tends to attract instant — and often destructive — political interest, and the USAC will definitely deal with that sooner rather than later.
Although the anticipated use of the Fund is well spelt out in the Kenya Communications Amendment Act (2009) as described above, the key funding priority should be to extend ICT services to underserved or marginalized areas.
RIGHT OF EVERY KENYAN
The philosophy behind such a stipulation is that access to communication services is a right bestowed on every Kenyan, including those who cannot afford them.
Using the USF, communication services would be deployed to the marginalized regions of Kenya, perhaps on a subsidized basis.
Telecommunications providers, broadcasters, NGOs and indeed any other interested parties would be expected to propose projects that aim to extend ICT services into marginalized regions and communities.
Another way would be to establish which regions are indeed marginalized and invite bidders to propose how they intend to bring those regions onto the communications radius. The council would then evaluate each project and decide which ones merit funding, based, of course, on criteria it will have specified.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
The usual challenge here is that the losing bidders will always reserve the right to complain and stall the projects through the Public Procurement Oversight Authority, and if necessary, the courts.
Another challenge would be how to transparently establish which regions merit government-funded telecommunications support.
The funds are also expected to support capacity building and promote innovation within the ICT sector.
This speaks directly to our universities and other research institutions, where the funds could be deployed to support training and stimulate ICT-related research and innovation.
Most of the telecommunication and commercial software providers are already active in this space, as evidenced by their regularly funded competitions targeting university students.
TARGETING RESEARCH
However, the USF could complement these efforts by targeting research that would address challenges experienced by the less fortunate in society. Examples include, but are not limited to, research on tools that would enhance the use of ICTs by those who are physically challenged, blind or deaf.
This is critical, given that government services are increasingly going online, and as such, risk cutting off access to people and communities with various disabilities.
The USAC clearly has its job cut out, and only time will tell whether it is up to the task.
Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. [email protected] Twitter:@jwalu
