In March of this year, the Kenya ICT Authority organized the inaugural Innovation forum at the KICC. The forum was organized seeking to chart the way forward for the ICT sector and was attended by industry insiders, the private sector and even the president. The forum fronted ambitious proposals on how to scale the ICT sector locally. The local players 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.
In exchange, for achieving those milestones, the government would action interventions key among them the the enactment of legislation on local content and the Establishment of the Enterprise Kenya Foundation to build IT Kenya and Grow IT Kenya. The government also promised to action a 40% buy local policy and collaboration between local and international firms in ICT projects. During the forum, the government also promised to begin heavily advertising on digital platforms through a presidential directive.
The government is now putting in place measures that will allow the ICT ministry to control all media buying, while at the same time implementing the presidential directive on advertising on digital platforms. The Daily Nation reports that under a new set of regulations, a new body, Government Advertising Agency (GAA), will authorize advertising while at the same time set the standards. All ministries, departments, agencies will in turn be required to submit their advertising plans 15 days before the start of each quarter to allow for planning and budgeting.
The government is also setting up an office for press conferences and to offer live streams to media users. The government will also channel advertising to its eCitizen Portal as well as mygov.go.ke. This will off course present a big boon for bloggers as well as local websites with heavy traffic, where they can finally monetize their online presence. It also presents an acknowledgment by the government of the increased internet usage within the country.
source: Daily Nation
