Small and medium sized enterprise owners based in select counties are
set to benefit from training on how to mine data, analyse it. FILE PHOTO
| NMG
Summary
- German-based researcher Mu data Analytics Institute public relations officer Emily Kesse said the project will start in July in Eldoret-Uasin Gishu County before moving to Nakuru, Nairobi, Nyeri and Mombasa.
- The five counties have been chosen because of their unique strengths in particular fields say Uasin Gishu-agriculture and Mombasa-tourism.
- Thousands of SME owners will be trained on what data is, trends in data science and analytics, and tools to use before engaging in lab sessions that will feature case studies on how companies have used such information to understand market trends, solve challenges and grow.
Small and medium sized enterprise owners based in select
counties are set to benefit from training on how to mine data, analyse
it.
This will be in a bid to help them develop
solutions that address challenges facing their businesses as well as
gauge industry trends.
German-based researcher Mu data
Analytics Institute public relations officer Emily Kesse said the
project will start in July in Eldoret-Uasin Gishu County before moving
to Nakuru, Nairobi, Nyeri and Mombasa.
The five
counties have been chosen because of their unique strengths in
particular fields say Uasin Gishu-agriculture and Mombasa-tourism.
Thousands of SME owners will be trained on what data is, trends
in data science and analytics, and tools to use before engaging in lab
sessions that will feature case studies on how companies have used such
information to understand market trends, solve challenges and grow.
“The
programme will run in three phases, the planning stage, implementation
then monitoring stage. We are currently at the planning stage.
Implementation shall begin in the month of July and run up to December
where we shall wind up in Mombasa county with a huge conference. Later,
we shall monitor the companies on how useful the training was to their
firms,” said Dr Kesse during the programme’s launch at Mt Kenya
University-Thika a fortnight ago.
Dr Kesse said the main reason for the project is to arouse Kenyans interest in data science.
“We
have done some research and realised that many companies in the country
and in Africa are yet to embrace data analyses to grow their firms
whereas we know that its relevance cannot be overemphasised. Uasin Gishu
requires data to establish farmers trends, Mombasa needs data to
establish trends in the tourism and pharmaceutical industries and
Nairobi needs to use data to make financial decisions and so forth,” she
said.
Dr Lavri Labi from the institute said data is
the new world in which global giants such as google, facebook and others
use to operate.
“These companies offer free services
to the world yet they remain the most profitable organisations in the
world. It is inspiring to note that mobile money transfer M-Pesa was
invented in Kenya, it gathers so much data but how many people use that
data to inspire solutions? Our vision is to inspire homegrown solutions
to Africa’s challenges through locally done data analyses,” said Dr
Labi.
The
project, a partnership between Mu data analytics institute, the Micro
and Small Entreprises Authority (MSEA) and Mt Kenya University, has been
funded by the Centre for International Migration (CIM), Germany.
MSEA
chairman Charles Waithaka said the use of data in coming up with
solutions to challenges affecting small and medium sized firms is key to
helping the government achieve it’s Big Four development agenda.
“This
project is timely. Industrialisation cannot take place without data. We
realise that our endeavor to increase the number of start ups in the
country, their access to markets and skills development cannot be
achieved without data analytics,” he said.
Mr Waithaka said the authority is aggregating information on the current number of SMEs in the country.
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