Kenya launches National ICT Master Plan

GOVERNMENT

The Kenyan Government has unveiled a Master Plan aimed at helping the ICT sector grow to a USD2bn industry by 2017.

The government’s efforts  to transform the country into a knowledge based economy through digital empowerment has today culminated in the launch of the first National ICT Master Plan.

A five year  plan that  seeks to drive citizen adoption of the Vision 2030 priorities through ICT policies and initiatives, the Master Plan  projects that by 2017 Kenya’s ICT industry will be contributing an estimated USD2 billion (some 25% of Kenya’s GDP) and have created around 500 new tier 1 ICT companies and over 50,000 jobs.

“As a step towards its realization, the ministry is working on standardizing business processes and developing sub-plans that will allow the delivery of innovative public services within government” said Information and Communication PS, Dr.Bitange Ndemo

“Strong governance and increasing engagement between the government and private sector will help to remove barriers that would impede execution in order to deliver a society based on knowledge,” added Ndemo.

Guided by the ministry’s policy objectives and to achieve the intended full benefits of ICT, the Masterplan plugs into the vision 2030’s social and economic pillars in seven key intervention areas. Under the social pillar are Education and Training, Health sector, Water and sanitation, Environment, housing and Urbanization, Gender, Youth and Vulnerable groups, Social Equity and poverty reduction.

The economic pillar shall deliver on Tourism, agriculture, Wholesale and Retail Trade, Manufacturing, Business process outsourcing and financial services and the creative industry.

What began as a stakeholder engagement on the hypothesis of what had been adopted in countries like Singapore has taken two years, culminating in the birth of the ICT Master Plan.

“Indeed, the plan is ambitious and it is an attempt to infuse ICT s and knowledge into the Vision 2030 by enhancing citizen value. How? by availing channels that will stimulate the set-up of ICT related businesses and therefore employment creation” said Paul Kukubo, ICT Board CEO.

At the core of this Master Plan are three strategic pillars that will be used as a measure of success. Enhancing public value through service delivery and access of public service, strengthening ICT as a driver of industry by establishing an ecosystem for ICT adoption and the development of ICT business that lead an understanding of the emerging market needs.

“The plan is really just a guideline and availing it to the public means that we are open for further deliberation and feedback .We intend to review the document annually to review progress and realign the same to the day’s priorities”, added Kukubo.

The launch of the National ICT Master Plan comes just two days after a draft National Cyber Security Master Plan round table, a final review session for the country’s first document that seeks to establish a regulatory and policy framework in information security. The Strategy and Plan play a fundamental role in managing risks to government processes through securing the information assets.