The Government of Kenya is in the final execution phase of its plan to deploy 100,000km of internet fibre to underserved areas within the country in the next two years. According to Ms Mary Kerema, Secretary of ICT, e-government and Digital Economy at the Kenyan Ministry of Information, this will ensure that over 50% of the country’s 54 million citizens have access to high-speed internet connections.
According to her, this is part of an ongoing process that started over 5 years ago. “The connectivity with fibre project started back in 2014 and we have done a lot to connect the country. But, we want to do more by adding 100,000 more kilometres around the country. And, that process is happening even now”, she explained.
Ms Kerema made this known while speaking at TikTok‘s launch of its inaugural Safety Advisory Council for Sub-Saharan Africa in Nairobi. The council is the first-of-its-kind safety consultative group by any social media platform in the region.
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According to her, the project named the “Last Mile County Connectivity Project” builds on President William Ruto’s Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). And, it aims to install reliable, stable, affordable, and high-speed internet connectivity across the country.
The government’s Kenya Kwanza’s Flagship initiative under the Jitume Programme targets to empower over 1 million youths in the country to access reasonable and sustainable income and to provide infrastructure and over 23,000 digital devices to centres among other activities.
Notably, the Kenyan government adopted a complex joint venture plan for the project noting that the technologies platform plays a crucial role in accelerating the country’s development in the digital era. This includes a mandate for the private sector to build 48,000 kilometres and the state to build 52,000 kilometres, as opposed to having a company that is 48 per cent privately owned and 52 per cent state-owned do it alone.
George Njuguna, Safaricom’s ICT director, told reporters last year that Safaricom is supporting the project and that of the 48,000 kilometres of lines, “we have already completed 13,000 kilometres.”
Broadband in Kenya: Much done. Much yet to come
Speaking with correspondents in April, Government Spokesperson, Dr Isaac Mwaura reported that the project had laid a total of 13,712 kilometres of fibre cable and increased the number of Public-Wi-Fi hot spots from 40 in 2022 to 1,222 in 2023. Cumulatively, it has also established a total of 1,262 Wi-Fi spots.
He cited the connection of 247 digital hubs with the internet, the training of 800 youths under the Presidential Digital Talent Program, the deployment of 12,087 virtual desktop infrastructure devices, and 136 Jitume sites, as some of the government’s achievements.
He noted that the government has, to date, distributed at least 13,488 devices to 176 digital lab institutions. He also added that the project has connected at least 119,462 youths to online jobs besides onboarding a total of 74 government services.
In a private chat with Technext, Ms Kerema added that another significant part of the project is to enhance the government service delivery, through digitization and automation of all critical government processes, as well as make 80 per cent of government services available online.
Beyond providing access to internet connections for citizens, she further highlighted the skills acquisition component of the project. According to the secretary, one of the main functions of the hub is to help young people acquire digital skills:
“We have put up over 100 digital hubs, in addition to the over 300 initial ones. And, we are planning to build more centres where young people can get digital skills. Once they go through this curriculum, they can go out and get jobs”, she explained.
In all, Ms Kerema pointed out that the target is to empower half the population through direct-to-home connectivity for 3000 households, and public access for the majority of others:
“Almost the entire population will have access eventually. They can access the internet from their homes if they have a mobile phone through our telco partners. Otherwise, they can visit any of our hubs across the country. If none is close to them, they can visit a government facility. They have wifi connections. If there isn’t any around, they can use wifi in the marketplaces across the country”, she concluded.
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