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| Safaricom, East Africa's most profitable company. |
According to recent media reports, the economy of Kenya is shifting towards the service sector. The service sector is now the key driver for jobs as opposed to manufacturing and the agricultural sector. This trend has been on going for some time now. For instance, the telecommunications sector has really grown. There are now about 20 million mobile phone subscribers. In an article on June 30, Time Magazine described Kenya as the ‘Silicon Savanna’. This is simply because of the innovations spewing out of Kenya. Chief among such innovations is MPESA, the mobile money transfer platform that was pioneered in Kenya by safaricom and Vodafone.
It is a fact that one will have to be truly innovative to compete with imports from China. The imports are very cheap and a manufacturer will have to be very savvy to compete with them. The agricultural sector on the other hand has simply been neglected. Young Kenyans view agriculture as not been cool enough, and even students pursuing the subject in University do not want to dirty their hands.
Even though the service sector is in deed growing at a rapid pace, many countries have used manufacturing and agriculture as the stepping stone to prosperity. A factory in a town certainly creates hundreds if not thousands of jobs in the area. Even those who are not highly educated can get a job as wheel barrow pushers, carrying loads etc. However, the service sector mostly favors the highly skilled employees. What is a standard eight drop out going to do at safaricom? Even as the service sector is continues to explode, manufacturing and agriculture should not be left behind.
(If you are an employer and you wish to advertise your job for free on this website, just email the job details to kenyanjobsportal@gmail.com and we will gladly post it for free.)
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