Digital-Hub
Information, Communications and the Digital Economy CS Eliud Owalo has exhorted Members of Parliament to fast-track the construction of ICT hubs in their respective constituencies to enhance digital literacy among the youth. He said the move would enable the realization of the government plan to have ICT hubs in all the 1450 wards in the country.
Speaking at the Swahilipot in Mvita Sub-County when he unveiled the 205th digital hub, Owalo said the Digital Superhighway was one of the key pillars of Kenya Kwanza administration development plan as espoused in the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
“I have been directed as the CS for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy to ensure that in every place of our country, we establish ICT hubs to equip our young boys and girls with digital skills,” said Owalo, adding the Swahilipot hub aligns with the government plan of equipping youths with digital skills.
He said the ministry has forged a partnership with legislators to roll out digital hubs in every ward nationwide. The MPs, Owalo noted, have since amended the National Government-Constitutional Development Fund Act and could now utilize three percent of their annual NG-CDF allocation to build digital hubs.
“Our role now as the national government is to connect the internet, equip them with computers and provide free training without payment. Later, we will link our youths with multi-national to get employment,” he said. The CS encouraged the youths to take cues from their peers, who were already earning income through online jobs, thus becoming financially independent.
He said the government’s major goal was to enable the youth to get jobs in the wake of diminishing white-collar jobs. “You can be here and working for a technology firm in America, Germany, India, United Kingdom, Singapore or elsewhere. Youths working online are paid in dollars,” reiterated Owalo.
Information, Communications and the Digital Economy Eliud Owalo interacts with tech trainees after he launched the Konza Digital Skills laboratory at Swahilipot, Mombasa. Photos by Andrew Hinga
Moving forward, the CS said all government services would be available online. “When we took the reins of power, we had 350 services on the e-citizen platform. Today, we have 17,020 that we have on board on e-citizen,” he declared. He further said the government is keen to ensure citizens get services in the comfort of their homes or offices, without necessarily visiting government offices.
“All the bottlenecks that some officers had put between government services and citizens including soliciting of bribes will now be a bygone, moving forward. Government services will be between you, your phone and the government itself without any middlemen in between,” stated the CS.
Owalo further reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring seamless internet connectivity across the country, adding that, “We have been digging trenches to lay fibre optic cables and now we have changed the plan. Moving forward, we will be using electricity transmission lines of Kenya Power Company to put fibre. This means that at any place, where there is a transformer, we will connect fibre,” he said.
He went on: “At the end, any place that will have an electricity meter, we will supply fibre and we will have the capacity to connect internet.”
At the same time, Owalo said the government has a robust plan to transform the way it works by leveraging on technology to have a paperless government, while noting that last-mile internet and electricity connections would ultimately catapult the country to have a 24-hour economy.
On his part, Swahilipot Hub Chief Mentor Mahmoud Noor extolled the Ministry of Information for their cooperation since the hub was founded. The hub, he said, aims to create a safe space for youths to get digital skills, thus the facility would enable youngsters to learn and earn through online jobs, without boarding airplanes to foreign countries.
Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi advised the youths to use the digital hubs to improve their digital literacy, even as the Head of State traverses the globe in pursuit of jobs for them.