The Kenya ICT Board, the state corporation charged with developing and promoting the Business Process Outsourcing Sector (BPO) has extended the deadline for bandwidth capacity support to the BPO Industry until end of March this year due to the current dear internet costs in the region.

The board through the Government of Kenya has received credit from the International Development Association (IDA) to fund this initiative aimed at assisting industry players meet the cost of internet connectivity.

This subsidy, funded by the World Bank will be extended from March 1, 2009 to 31st March 2010. This will be the final extension in response to the board’s request on behalf of the industry with an aim to mitigate the high prices of internet access in the country which is reducing albeit slowly following the landing of the Teams and Seacom fibre optic cables.

Eligibility for the bandwidth capacity support will be open to all BPO operators in Kenya who currently offer outsourcing services.The Kenya ICT Board will audit the companies and oversee the disbursement of the funds to the BPO operators upon  receipt of applications from operators.The first phase of capacity support ran from 1st July 2007 to Feb 2009. During this time, USD 508,937.29 (circa Ksh 40m) out of a budgeted amount of USD7M was disbursed.  It is predicted that the extension of this support will significantly increase the uptake of the subsidy by industry players and give the industry the necessary boost to grow and be able to compete on a global scale.The capacity support will be disbursed effective immediately and will close on March 31st 2010.Mr. Paul Kukubo, CEO Kenya ICT Board said: “Increasing Kenya’s competitiveness in the global BPO sphere is vital for the growth of the industry. With the fibre Optic cables now in place, Kenya has become a significant competitor in the global BPO space. We expect the cost of internet connectivity to drop significantly. But this will take some time.  This extension of bandwidth capacity support will help the industry reduce operating costs and thus increase global competitiveness in the short term.”Mr.Kukubo also said the criteria and procedure for bandwidth capacity disbursement remains the same as  BPO companies will be expected to register with Kenya ICT Board as a BPO operator by completing a registration form available at Kenya ICT Board Offices and on our website (www.ict.go.ke); Sign a “BPO Capacity Purchase Scheme MOU Agreement" with the Kenya ICT Board; Audit and verification of the required submissions will be carried out and Upon completion, the capacity support will be provided; and lastly, Post award, monitoring and evaluation will be carried out consecutively and concurrently by a Kenya ICT Board at regular intervals.