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The future of IT in
Papua New Guinea
By MALUM NALU
The establishment of digital posters
is one of the biggest breaks for young IT entrepreneur, Emmanuel
Narakobi, since setting up his company Masalai Communications in
2001.
The 29-year-old, who turned his back on a lucrative legal career
to get into IT, is, however, confident that IT has a big future in
Papua New Guinea.
Narakobi, of mixed East Sepik and Morobe parentage, is a graduate
lawyer of the University of PNG who was bitten by the IT bug.
He wears many other hats apart from Masalai Communications such as
being general manager of Narakobi Lawyers, president of the
University rugby union club, and president of the Port Moresby
Rugby Football Union.
He is adamant IT can contribute to business efficiency, and
contribute greatly to dissemination of information to and from
villages.
Digital posters are a new, dynamic and captivating medium in PNG
for products and services to be advertised to consumers, which
Masalai is running in major Port Moresby supermarkets such as SVS,
Stop N Shop, Boroko Foodworld and Andersons Foodland,
Other major projects Masalai has undertaken are data/voice cabling
for the four-storey Post Haus in Boroko; data/voice cabling for
the National Fisheries Authority in Deloitte Tower; SMS voting for
Ice Discovered on EMTV; and the concept of email to SMS for
Australian mobile phones which never really took off.
Right now the company is working on touch screens for customer
feedback for ANZ Bank and looking at a number of e-commerce
initiatives.
"I started Masalai in 2001 and I used to work from my bedroom with
a dial up connection," Narakobi remembers.
"My interest in IT and initially websites first came from seeing
the Trading Post newspaper in Australia in 1999, so I thought to
myself, 'what if we had a website like that newspaper in PNG?'.
"I started the www.pngtradepost.com.pg website and then set about
teaching myself how to design websites from a HTML for Dummies
book.
"The Trading Post website, due a lot to my lack of attention, has
not developed as much as it could have but this was what led me
into website development.
"I met a friend called Phillip Korare who worked in Datec at that
time and he taught me a lot of the basic HTML programming to get
started.
"Masalai itself then came about from meeting two like-minded
friends; we thought that we knew something about IT so we decided
to give it a go.
"I was actually still in Legal Training Institute after law school
and I decided that I wanted to do something different which could
make a difference.
"I know that sounds really cliché but my friends and I really
believed that.
"They both have since gone their own ways: one is in London now
and the other is Brown Omotosho of Nichtosh.
"Brown and I are still very close and we still do a lot of
projects together.
"He specialises in electrical and data/voice networks.
"And just so you know, we have started on redeveloping the Trading
Post website."
Masalai's progress over the years has been like the proverbial
tortoise; however, with the great support of his family and
friends, Narakobi is proving that "slow and steady oftens wins the
race".
Masalai's bread and butter is website development, its Content
Management System for updating websites without any need for
programming skills, and website analytics with Google.
Its major clients include Coca-Cola Amatil, PNG Ports Authority,
National Maritime Safety Authority, Internal Revenue Commission,
PNG Events Council, National Fisheries Authority, NASFUND, PNG Gas
Project, Autonomous Region of Bouganville, Independent Public
Business Corporation, Pryde Furniture, Ela Beach Hotel, Supreme
and National Courts of PNG, Pacific Assurance Group and many more
medium to small clients.
Masalai has done over 30 websites since 2001 and this year has
already picked up about 20 jobs.
"I think you go through a lot of different feelings," Narakobi
says about being a young Papua New Guinean with his own IT
company.
"I feel a lot of freedom in what I think and can do; I think that
would be the big benefit.
"I guess I'm only restricted by my cash flows and dreams really,
so it feels good knowing that.
"Of course, with that freedom comes the responsibility I feel of
doing something that changes the country, hopefully, and doing it
right.
"I also do feel a lot of pressure to get things right and it does
hurt when I fail at anything or I fail clients.
"I currently have six staff with me: three of them are freelance
contractors.
"Freelancers help keep down my costs and also allow me to source
from a wider pool of talent, so I'm not stuck with one creative
type of model.
"It helps me to source the best talent for any given project.
"But I am now looking at increasing my staff numbers this year so
I could end up with about 10 by the end of this year.
"I feel fortunate to have met the people in my team, they have
been a great support in getting us where we are today and
obviously we still have more to do in improving ourselves and our
skills and services."
Narakobi feels strongly that more people in PNG must have to have
access to IT.
"IT is a broad area and if you separate it into offline usage and
online usage, then you can understand better where we are at in
PNG.
"IT's aim is to share information which means that an online PC or
a networked PC in an office will have more usage and demands from
the user.
"So in PNG, the most-networked PC's and the most PC's hooked onto
the Internet are the ones in businesses.
"Papua New Guineans today are a lot more familiar with IT and what
it can do for them.
"More people now through Internet at work have email addresses now
as opposed to back in 1999.
"But IT usage now is primarily in the business world so the social
and personal aspect of IT has not been developed enough yet in PNG.
"The only way for people to personally interact on the net is in
their work time.
"Why?
"Because the total costs for accessing the Internet at home or
personally through, say your mobile phone or a PDA is prohibitive
or non-existent, and that is a direct consequence of the pricing
hurdles set by ISP's and Telikom's Tiare Gateway.
"Businesses bear a lot of costs for IT now and they can afford to,
even though it is expensive, but until the cost for personal
access and overall access of Internet is lowered, we will continue
to lag by 5-10 years behind the rest of the world.
"So two things need to be done.
"Firstly, Internet prices need to drop so Internet penetration
rates can be increased; and secondly, entrepreneurs and businesses
need to show consumers how their daily lives can be improved and
be more efficient with IT initiatives, and I mean initiatives that
can touch everyone in PNG from the cities to the villages.
"The future is bright and since we still have a long way to go,
the only way is up so to speak.
"Internet prices will drop and the different forms of accessing
the Internet will increase, whether it be from a PC at home, a PDA
at a restaurant, your laptop at a hotel lobby or your mobile phone
in your hand.
"This is inevitable with the way the rest of the world has gone,
but for us it is only a question of how quickly that happens?"
For further information, visit the website www.masalai.net or call
Emmanuel Narakobi on telephone (675) 323 6266, mobile (675) 683
6231, or email emmanuel@masalai.net.
 
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