The Government of Kenya appears committed to establishing Konza City, a technopolis and innovation city several kilometers outside Nairobi. A couple of months ago, the project, which has since attracted interest from South Korea and Chinese investors, saw the staging of an innovation conference by the Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA) , which, at that time, saw the launch of an Innovation Ecosystem Forum whose main goal is to showcase Kenya’s ability to push for gainful innovation.
The launch was, later on, supplemented by a STEM bootcamp for young innovators that focused on robotics concepts and simple programming principles. In addition, the Konza Technopolis-sponsored boot camp encouraged the development of critical thinking and teamwork in tackling challenges and projects.
To this end, it is apparent that Konza and its associated programs and aims, has not slacked or deviated from its primary agenda: a couple of weeks ago, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) officiated the launch of a KES 10 billion Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The campus at Konza Technopolis is predicted to start operations in 2022 and admit 330 students during its first Phase.
During that week, Korea-KAIST President Dr. Sung-Chul Shin, who was the University of Nairobi then, stated that ‘Kenya-KASIT will be constructed within the Phase one (1) A section at Konza which lies on 400 acres of land.’
According to The Star, the Konza project has received another financial commitment that will see the construction of a data centre, as well as a Smart City project. The announcement was made earlier today, and will be accompanied by a Nairobi JKIA to James Gichuru expressway. Both projects will be conducted by the Chinese: KES 17.5 billion for Konza and KES 51 billion for the expressway. The Konza construction will be carried out by Chinese telecoms corporation Huawei.
Huawei’s telecoms business is undisputedly superior to what the competition has in place. At the moment, the corporation’s strides in 5G technology are unmatched, which, arguably, has put the organization in a hot seat. Its operations in some of the prominent markets in the West such as the U.S. have been curtailed by a series of accusations that are yet to be substantiated.
That aside, Huawei has made financial leaps thanks to its mobile division that shipped up to 59 million handhelds in the first quarter of 2019. In the same period, Huawei installed a substantial amount of 5G base stations. The developments are projected to see further growth in coming days as telecoms technology pushes to expand 5G for the next wave of users.
Update: In an earlier article, we stated that it was KES 175 billion. The accurate figure is KES 17.5 billion and we have updated the article to reflect that.
