Following requests by some GIS students twitter followers, this is a simple perspective of who pays what and who gives the best opportunity. According to my experience the top honchos are Governmant agencies and non for profits/international NGO’s. In terms of career development they also take top postion in my view. Now to be more specific I will start with government agencies.
Government Agencies
Well in Kenya we have a name for special government agencies tasked with achieving certain goals or objectives. They are better known as Para-statals. Governement may have 100% share holding in some, while in others there has been a drive to float their shares to the Nairobi Stock Exchange. I think out of the more than 50 para-statals, less than 10 are listed on the stock exchange. I have noticed a scramble for skillsets by these kind of agencies. Now if you are thinking let me call my uncle who works at Nyayo Tea eastates in order to get a GIS job, then you are clearly loosing the drift. Para-statals in Kenya kind of have class. An entry level position at one of the parastatals is not the same with that in another. With the passing of the new constitution, new parastatals have been creates while others are in the process of being created. Given their nature, and the fact that they are en-shrined in the new constitution, they top the payment list and perks. So this include Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission, Interim Independent Electoral Commission, National Revenue Authority e.t.c. Following closely to this are the para-statals in the Energy sector. The energy sector is know to employ some of the best brains in GIS is Kenya. Now top of this list is the Kenya Power. Yes! even though we curse them every time power goes off. Sadly most of the software Kenya Power runs is not locally developerd hence they have GIS consultants from Indra. I do know for a fact Indra has been involved in training their staff on their software suites.
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