The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution sweeping across Africa is both unprecedented and exciting, opening up opportunities that seemed far-fetched just over a half-decade ago and fundamentally redefining everything about life as Africans have known it. Countries like Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, and Kenya have gone ahead to establish full-fledged ICT ministries and agencies, thus setting the precedent for the contribution of a whole new sector to national productivity.

As this trend continues, Kenya’s ICT sector is set to contribute up to 8 per cent to the country’s GDP through IT-enabled services (ITES) and create 180,000 jobs by 2017. The sector is also projected to create up to 55 Kenya-based global companies, $500 million in Venture Capital funds and up to $1 billion in ICT exports.

“ICT Authority is keenly observing the ICT Masterplan into developing Kenya within which this forum lies. Among the key things that IT innovations can do is the contribution of up to 8 per cent to the country’s GDP by ITES as well as create 180,000 jobs in 2017 and we are working towards achieving this,” said Victor Kyallo, CEO of the Kenyan ICT Authority, in his opening remarks at a recent Innovation Forum.

Other captains of the industry were presented at the event and each spoke to the significance of the sector and how necessary it was to fully leverage the potentials therein.

The private sector is key

Mike Macharia, Kenya ICT Outsourcing Society chair and CEO, Seven Seas Technologies, spoke extensively on how to use innovation to solve Kenya’s problems. His thesis centred on young entrepreneurs commercializing their companies and acquiring Intellectual property that can be sold across the continent and the globe. In his words, “We need to connect the dots, break down the silos in the ecosystem and collaborate to create value.”

Going further, he emphasized the need for the ICT Sector to work with the private sector and centres of excellence in universities as this broad collaboration will help in shaping ideas while ensuring their implementation in the classroom and industry, thus solving the nation’s problems indeed.

Finally, he proposed the creation of a presidential innovation task force, a government and private owned venture capital fund as well as new favourable procurement and local content laws. Concluding his presentation he said; “If we are able to do all this Kenya will be Africa’s home of innovation.”

Kenya still has skills gaps

Dr Fred Matiang’I, Cabinet Secretary of the ICT Ministry and significant advocate of the digital inclusion drive, offered a similar but unique view, saying that the major challenge facing the sector faces is the gap in skillsets.

“Our key challenge as the Government however is the inadequate skills. We want to implement and move most of our services to the digital platform but human capacity still lingers, but through the Presidential Digital Training Programme (PDTP) we are beginning to work with the private sector to equip the public sector with the right skills so that we can gradually transition the public sector. We have a total of 9 key ICT projects in Government therefore we look forward to working with the private sectors through the nine projects as centres of excellence.”

Dr Matiang’I concluded by hinting that the PDTP will contribute to job creation and GDP growth by creating as many as a thousand jobs within the next half-decade.

By Emmanuel Iruobe

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