The Kenyan government is committed to lay an additional 100,000km of national fibre optic cables across the country in line with its Digital Superhighway Agenda, a part of its Broadband Programme.
“It is anticipated that in the next five (5) years, and through collaborative efforts with the private sector, an additional 100,000Km of national fibre optic will have been deployed, in line with our National Optic Fiber Bone Infrastructure (NOFBI),” said Mr. Eliud Owalo, CS, Ministry of Information, Communications & The Digital Economy, during the official launch of Connected Summit 2023, on Monday, 3rd April, 2023 at Diani, Kwale County.
The Kenyan government will work with the private sector to lay the fibre optic cables. The government expects to lay around 52,000 while the rest will be rolled out by the private sector.
These is what the Kenyan government announced last year in its ten-year National Digital Masterplan 2022-2032 last year at the same summit. The 100,000km of high speed fiber optic infrastructure will provide internet to all Schools, government institutions/offices, Metro-cities, health facilities, rural businesses, homes and public spaces. The government will also deploy 25,000 hotspots and establish 1,450 digital innovation hubs in wards across the country to support youth and innovators, the government announced last year.
“ICT is one of the five critical pillars of the Kenya Kwanza Government Manifesto. It is also the driver of the other four. For this reason, it is our strategic missionary agenda to take ICT to every doorstep and to every nook and cranny of our society,” said Owalo. “We are taking ICT to every public institution; and eventually to every marketplace, every home every school, and every hospital. We intend to reach every individual, for tomorrow’s job creation and for generation of wealth. This is critical for competitiveness and sustainable development in a fast changing world.”
Now in its 12th Edition, the Connected Summit is a one-stop thought leadership forum for the information and communication technology (ICT) industry in Kenya. In this forum, stakeholders are able to appreciate the state of the art in ICT, not just in the country, but across the globe. The Summit aims to put Kenya on the global weighing scales of ICT and to determine its weight, place, and worth.
“Together with this initiative, the government is already embarked on setting up 25,000 public WI-FI hotspots, 1,450 village digital hubs and at least two (2) data centres in every ward in the country,” said the CS. “Separately, we are on course with the digitization of government records and digitalization of services. Our goal is to digitize up to 80% of the records by the end of June this year, and to digitalize an initial 5,000 services.”
