Eliud Owalo, Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication, and the Digital Economy, has revealed that Kenya’s government plans to establish the country’s first Virtual University.
The institution, which will be located in Konza, will be built in accordance with the government’s goal of developing a digital superhighway to facilitate the smooth delivery of its services.
while presenting the ICT ministry’s scorecard for the previous year. On Monday, Owalo stated that the institution will support digital skilling and training for Kenyans to obtain the highest levels of ICT capabilities.
Owalo also announced that the government has obtained a donation of 23,000 digital gadgets through the Ajira Digital and Jitume programs for distribution through stakeholder alliances with the intention of having a critical mass of Kenyans acquire ICT skills and also create jobs. The programs have so far trained 336,000 young people and produced 109 digital jobs overall.
Owalo asserted that after successful training and sensitization, the skills will be applied to the market sector through digital entrepreneurship.
According to him, this will make it possible for Kenyans to access public services via smartphones, filling a known market gap.
He also indicated that the country would start producing smartphones locally. The first batch will be released in the coming month, with a suggested retail price of Ksh. 5,600.
The ICT CS added that the government has already begun utilizing the ICT infrastructure and that the country is moving in the direction of adopting e-commerce. According to him, the government has so far set up 179 innovation hubs, 112 Jitume laboratories, 22,000 kilometers of fiber, and 442 public WiFi hotspots.
