Kenya has managed to promote itself as an ICT leader in Africa and a global innovation hub. It continues to attract global firms such as Qualcomm, Intel and Huawei. Speaking during the ICT innovation forum at the KICC, ICT Authority CEO Victor Kyalo stated plans are in place to scale up the output of the ICT sector upto to 8% of the GDP. Kyalo stated that significant gains are being made through partnerships, research and development in Academia.
Speaking separately, Seven Seas Technologies CEO Mike Macharia spoke on the need to build IT Kenya and Buy Kenya. “There is need to spur growth in ICT and this needs a Multifaceted approach from both the government and private sector to mind the gap. “We laud the government for the gains so far but more still needs to be done.” The interventions proposed in order to build the knowledge economy include a quasi owned private sector and government owned organization called Enterprise Kenya.
Collaboration between the ICT sector and centers of excellence including Universities and Tertiary institutions will work towards the achievement of these goals. Other efforts proposed include the creation of a presidential innovation task force, a government and private owned venture capital fund as well as enactment of favorable procurement and local content laws.
With the implementation of these interventions, the private sector promised to create upto 180,000 jobs, 50+commercial patents and upto 1 Billion dollars in ICT exports.ICT sector promised to create 180,000 jobs, 55 Kenyan-Global companies, 50+commercial patents, 500 million dollars venture capital fund as well as upto $1 Billion in ICT exports.
The #INNOVKE forum continues.
IMG c/o Aly Khan Satchu via Twitter
