- The Kenyan government has revealed plans to build 1,450 ICT hubs in the country as part of its efforts to implement the recently launched Digital Master Plan 2022-2032.
- The project, set to begin in 2024, will offer Kenyans digital literacy training, film production, and public access to government services across the country.
- Eluid Owalo, the ICT cabinet secretary, emphasised the significance of this development in laying a stronger foundation for ICT-related development and the digital economy.
“Imagine at one digital hub, we are capable of creating 300 digital jobs. In a constituency that has an average of five wards, we are capable of creating 1,500 youths in the village. As much as these hubs will be domiciled in the village, the youth there shall be working with both national and international firms.”
Owalo reaffirmed the government's commitment to seeing the project through to completion to establish Kenya as Africa's ICT hub.
Kenya has emerged as a significant force in Africa's digital evolution over time. The country has launched numerous digital infrastructure projects to open doors for development and economic expansion.
The nation, which ranks second among African nations with the greatest level of technological advancement, recently unveiled a ten-year digital master plan.
In the digital master plan, the four main pillars are digital infrastructure, digital services and data management, digital skills, and encouraging digital innovation for entrepreneurship.
The creation of 1,450 information and communication hubs across the country is in line with the digital infrastructure pillar, which also entails the installation of 25,000 hotspots in public spaces and important business centres, the development of the government cloud, the acceleration of the Konza technopolis/smart city development, the construction of regional ICT infrastructure, and the creation of a sustainable power plan to support the infrastructure.
Additionally, the government planned to accelerate the implementation of the comprehensive Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) in schools starting in March 2022 through partnerships with the private sector.
The initiative, which aims to teach students contemporary technology skills at a young age, has produced the installation of 1,170,846 digital devices in 22,891 public primary schools.
