A plan to make Kenya one of the world's top 10 tech hubs by 2017 has been unveiled by the country's ICT Board.
The “master plan” was released by the Kenyan government's ICT arm at the Connected Kenya summit held late last week in Mombasa, which brought together government and industry experts.
Kenya ICT Board chief executive Paul Kukubo said the aim is to produce 500 local medium-sized ICT firms and help create 20 Kenyan tech companies, which will have multinational reach, in the next five years.
The East African country is streaking ahead of much of the continent in terms of its uptake of the Internet, as undersea cables such as Eassy and Seacom have connected the nation to high-speed broadband.
Kenya, which has an estimated population of 41 million, had 10 492 785 Internet users at the end of 2011, according to Internet World Stats. This figure is higher than that of Africa's economic powerhouse, SA, which only had 6 800 000 Internet users as of the end of 2011, according to Internet World Stats. SA has an estimated population of 49 million.
“We want Kenya to be among the top 10 ICT hubs in the world,” Kukubo told the summit, adding that the benefits of the plan included improved access to public services and information.
“We are looking at having about 500 medium-sized companies, the size of Sevenseas Technologies, and 20 multinational companies,” he said.
“We already are on the way to having the first multinational company in Ushahidi, as soon as it can get a way to monetise its services,” said Bitange Ndemo, minister of information and communication.
The online rush in Kenya has fuelled a frenzy of software, mobile application and Web site development in the country, which has helped to generate the creation of products that are being used worldwide, such as the Ushahidi crowdsourcing software.
The Kenya ICT Board wants to accelerate the momentum of the ICT sector in the country even further.
Ndemo said the master plan has been conceptualised to see ICT contribute 25% of the country's entire gross domestic product (GDP) - which would outstrip agriculture's contribution to GDP in that country.
The Kenyan government also plans to set up a steering committee to oversee the country's transition to a “digital nation”, providing support to entrepreneurs looking to start their own businesses.
However, the government's bid to bolster the country's ICT sector has drawn criticism.
Tech analyst Kennedy Kachwanya says that, given the right environment, there is potential for Kenyan tech businesses to thrive. But, he says, government should leave the private sector to oversee the creation of such companies.
“There are so many creative and entrepreneurial Kenyans, and if the environment is good, they will be able to carry out the wishes of the ICT Board,” he said. “But I think as soon as the government gets in the middle of everything that would mark the end of the great dream.”
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