Information and Communications Minister Samuel Poghisio has said the landing of the four national broadband optic-fibre cables has contributed to Kenya's meteoric rise in the IT sector.
"In just under four years, Internet penetration increased by over 60 percent, reducing costs and creating over a quarter million sectoral jobs", said the minister, noting that improved service was expected with the roll out of US$ 876 million under the Universal Access Fund.
The minister who is leading a five-member Ministerial delegation to Cairo on a fact finding tour of digital villages also attributed Kenya's rapid IT growth to intense public-private sector engagement.
"Increased understanding of the sectoral operations led to great Government support for private investment in the industry", he said, noting that the move to fast-track the landing of Teams, Eassy, Seacoms and NOFBI under-sea cables through PPPs hastened the growth of the national IT infrastructure.
"There wasn't a single cable in 2009", said the Minister, explaining that Kenya's Telecommunications sector had received massive Government support. He was holding discussions with Egyptian IT officials on a three-day visit to the US$ 40 billion Cairo Smart Village where a 700-acre technology park has been established.
Minister Poghisio said for Kenya to improve its national systems for IT innovation, the government had embraced the industry, noting that plans to establish the Konza Technopolis were at an advanced stage.
"Kenya and Egypt are keen to work towards a strategic partnership in the development of digital parks, green ICT, capacity building, Mobile e-security, fiber-optics expansion, e-education and capacity building", he said, acknowledging challenges with cyber-crime in Kenya.
He noted that with the recent increased focus on IT in Africa, the two countries would soon sign an MOU to facilitate collaboration in the sector.
"With the Seacom fibre optic connecting Egypt and Southern Africa, there is priority to establish opportunities for collaboration in the sector", he said.
Minister Poghisio said Kenya recognized Egypt as a technology giant with which it could benchmark its progress. He noted it was critical to focus on the interconnectedness of Africa in a bid to catalyze regional co-operation in the establishment of national IT parks and to boost Business processing Outsourcing (BPOs).
"Plans to build the new Konza City include even greater expansion of Broadband and capacity building", he said, noting that there was also urgency and room for the development of content applications and incubation centres. He said Kenya was keen to collaborate with partners in the development of technology products to enhance the quality of life in the rural areas.
"It's always risky to have bio-technology without appropriate content development", the minister explained, noting that progress was underway in the digitization of varied information, records, land registry and the judiciary in Kenya.
Mpesa's success
Asked about Mpesa's tremendous success, Minister Poghisio said the application had simply identified the needs of unbanked Kenyans.
"It was also a joint effort with the bank and technology", he said, noting that this was an opportunity for Egypt to also draw lessons from Kenya.
Noting the rapid expansion of Mobile Telephony in Kenya and the world-class experience with Mpesa, the minister said it was possible for Egypt to borrow from some of Kenya's newly-developed social applications.
"Our most recent innovation is the rural maternal health insurance for expectant women", he said noting that mobile phones were being effectively used across the country. Kenya currently has 27 million broadband users compared to only 347,000 on fixed lines.
Egyptian Information and Communication Minister, Mr. Amr Badawi who received the Kenya delegation said Egypt's bid to use IT as a soft power had precipitated its come-back after the recent political upheaval.
"Our experience can benefit Africa. We are already partnering with Malawi, Eritrea, Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya in the sector", Mr. Badawi said.
Internet connectivity rise
Egypt which has over 20 national Technology parks, believes they will contribute significantly to its economy. With an internet connectivity rise of over 102 percent, it currently has the cheapest mobile phone rates in the Arab region, with 83 million mobile subscribers with a mere nine percent fixed-line penetration.
It plans to use US $ 3 billion to implement its National Broad plan in June 2012 under a ten-year national plan through private sector involvement.
"The government will own only 20 per cent of the shares but will strive to effectively use the Universal Access funds", said Mr. Badawi.
Egypt with a 160 year old Telecommunications sector will make Broad band obligatory in the next three years. It began the technology parks in 2001.
"Our objective is to cover 90 per of the country, create 40,000 jobs and earn over US$ 3 billion in revenue annually", said Badawi. The plan will be ready by the end of this year.
To develop a feasible strategy for the sector, Kenya expressed interest in collaboration in policy, legislation, postal services, cloud-computing, green ICT, technology innovation, entrepreneurship (innovation support centres) cloud computing, e-tablet initiatives and social networks. Although the Kenya Communications Amendment Act legalized e-signature, the country still plans to enhance the system.
"We're also keen to diversity in dashboard communication, open data access, financial seeds for call centres, improving business standards and linkages", minister Poghisio said. Other areas that Kenya wants to improve are SMEs, marketing, branding and matchmaking between companies, digital identity management, integration of national data bases, special needs initiatives and job opportunities.
The Smart Village which is set on 700 acres houses over 62 ultra-modern green building (smart models) with many multinationals among them, Orange, Micro-soft, Vodafone, ITO; Barclays Bank, all using Egypt as a hub for serving the back-office. All the companies focus on BPOs and offering smart services.
The minister was accompanied by the Director of Business Processing outsourcing Dr. Catherine Adeya, the CEO of Kenya Year Book Mr. Dennis Chebitwey and the Ag. Director of Public Communications Ms. Mary Ombara.
The team toured Telecom Egypt, the National Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Information Technology Institute (IT), the National Telecommunications Institute (NTI) and Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), all located in the Smart Village. Senior Egyptian IT officers were also present.
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