Determinants of performance of digital villages Project in Kenya

Abstract

The digital village projects is an initiative by the Kenyan Government in Partnership with other stakeholders in the ICT Sector aimed at facilitating the underserved communities' with access to ICT to enhance their general well-being. The role of the centers is to deliver ICT services to marginalized communities with the main objective of narrowing the apparent digital gap by introducing and encouraging the usage of ICT; and creating community communication equipped with a range of ICT services to facilitate Internet access, e-commerce, and e-learning. This study seeks to investigate and examine the issue that influence the performance of the digital villages in an attempt to bridge the digital divide in developing countries and thus institutionalize the foundation of a sustainable model by examining the usage and effects of the services offered in the centers. Descriptive research design was used to carry out the study. The study's target population was end-users and staff member of the digital villages' centers setup in Kenya, a part representation of the entire population was drawn from Nairobi County. The study will relied on primary data to guide and used questionnaires for data collection. The data collected was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study examined how stakeholder participation, level of infrastructure development, demographic profiles and local contents affects the performance of DVP in Kenya. The findings confirm that these parameters affect the performance on the centers in regard to effectiveness, relevance and sustainability. The findings suggests on some of the challenges experienced and ways to curb the same for better performance.