Getting Kenya Business Online, a project launched on my birthday, September 12 at the Gkenya event in a partnership by Google, Safaricom and Equity Bank has announced the figures of the active users of the platform. There are currently over 11000 small and medium sized businesses on the GKBO (Getting Kenya Businesses Online) platform. That is a huge uptake on the free platform who’se aim is to make Kenyan Businesses more visible online.
Google had said that only 10% of Kenyan Businesses are actually online, and this is a step in the right direction. The impact here is that there will be more better internet uptake as the internet will be a resource to enable better business transactions. With this we will also see better online business systems including better embracing of e-commerce systems. We all know our market has not really picked up where e-commerce is concerned.
Small business owner Njambi Kiritu from Impact by Design, commented that “The Kenyan public are already online, searching for information. Information about my business is now readily available to them on www.impact-by-design.com. I have reached over 90 new customers and increased our revenue tenfold since 2008”
Business owner Njagi Kabugu from Nakuru, who also set up his website starwitmediakenya.kbo.co.ke as part of the GBKO initiative, added that “Some businesses think that getting online is expensive, or complicated. My experience has shown, however, that there are easy-to-use tools available to set up a website. Setting up my site took 50 minutes, and as a result my video coverage business is now reaching people around Kenya.”
Its great to see something actually working, and I would like to see the 10% go up to atleast 40%, its a win-win situation for all.
