Wired
Entrepreneur profile of ICT wiz Priscilla Kevin.
Kevin McQuillan speaks to Priscilla Kevin about her path into information and communications technology.
Can PNG develop a generation of technology entrepreneurs? The answer is probably yes, if the case study of technology specialist Priscilla Kevin is an example.
She runs the Port Moresby-based ICT consultancy, In4net, which she set up two years ago.
“I provide ICT management and advisory services, financial business data analysis and general ICT consulting services,” she says.
“Priscilla Kevin is one of the younger generation of PNG entrepreneurs,” says Paul Barker, executive director of the Institute of National Affairs in Port Moresby. “And one of an even smaller group of confident and worldly women entrepreneurs, who has stepped into the traditionally male enclave of engineering and ICT.”
Her love of science, maths and physics was evident at school.
“When I was at the National High, before I chose computer science, I was offered a scholarship to be a pilot. But I was very interested in computer science,’ says Kevin. “It was a new industry,” she adds. Kevin graduated 12 years ago with a BA (honours) in computer science from the PNG University of Technology, ranking top of her program. She was dux at high school, and scored highest in national maths at National High.
Her policeman-father hails from West Sepik Province, and her mother from Barakau village in the Central Province, which produces some of the major Papuan musicians and intellects.
Her first formal employment was with MIS Software Solutions, a local distributor of SYSPRO, a resource-planning software.
“It gave me an opportunity to learn and understand different types of businesses in private sector, government and academia in PNG and what existed in the market.”
In 2009, she set up her first technology consulting company, which ceased shortly after her family split. The demand for security and stability of her children, though, saw her return to full-time employment.
“It’s hard when you experience failure in life, but I’ve learnt that failure is good because it teaches you to change course and to become better than what you were before.”
Aside from being an entrepreneur, Kevin actively participates in sector-led initiatives.
She is on the executive of the PNG Computer Society, a member of PNG Business Council, a leader in the European Unionfunded PNG ICT cluster and is on the board of the Pacific Islands Internet Society.
Last year, she was part of the EU Business Climate program, which brought together ICT specialists in PNG to create collaboration and connect with government and the private sector. (It was one of four such clusters in the Pacific – the others were in Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu.) An outcome of the cluster work has been to begin talks with the National Government on creating an intellectual property rights (IP) law. “We’re saying there is potential for PNG to invent and innovate but we don’t have any IP protection in PNG,” says Kevin.
Other initiatives include advocating tax incentives for ICT SMEs, reducing internet costs and promoting entrepreneurship, mentorship and venture capital market opportunities for PNG businesses.
“There has been a lot of focus on entrepreneurship, and last year we started up our first entrepreneurship training with Australian Business Volunteers. It involves one month’s training mentorship.”
A major barrier to developing a culture of entrepreneurship in PNG, she says, is the expense of starting up a new business.
“The major cost is rent. Real estate is really expensive and so are internet costs, but it is also difficult to promote who you are, and what you do.”
Over the next 12 months, Kevin wants to grow her business, and that highlights another challenge for entrepreneurs – access to funding.
“Startups do not always have the muchneeded capital to accelerate an idea.
“The ICT industry has great potential, but the environment in which it operates needs to be looked at. We are in the knowledge era and the internet and ICT is very new to the country, just 10 years old, so there is great interest in the ICT industry as a career.”
Most of that potential is in the rural sector, she says, where electricity often doesn’t exist, and the cost of internet access is high.
“Rural people don’t have access to basic key information to enable them to develop their communities. Power is just one of the bigger challenges, especially for businesses. They can’t use ICT because of the power, the high cost of the internet.” Kevin’s leisure interest is mainly in reading. “Lots of reading,” she says. “I collect and read many books on thinking, leadership, computer technology and world history.
“I read a lot about great people who have changed the face of the globe as it inspires me to think differently about how to solve our country’s problems by taking into account cultural context and people at the core.”
It’s hard when you experience failure in life, but I’ve learnt that failure is good because it teaches you to change course and to become better than what you
were before.