Since the launch of mobile money services in Kenya in 2007, this offering has been widely adopted by both the Government and Private sector as a payment platform that enables users to access financial and non-financial products via mobile phones. The Government recognizes the economic importance of mobile money and the growing need to conveniently access the services across the country. To address mobile money challenges so as to drive financial inclusion across the country, the government will: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) Encourage mobile operators to share mobile money infrastructures including agent networks on transparent, fair and non-discriminatory basis; Provide incentives to mobile operators in cases where sharing mobile money infrastructures would expose them to return on investment risks (the implementation of sharing should protect the value of existing investment in infrastructures and services); Collaborate with the Central Bank of Kenya in developing mobile money interoperability policy that fosters competition; Promote innovation in mobile money services; Ensure the mobile money infrastructure sharing protects public interests and guarantees high security and quality of service. 5.10 Data Centres Data centres are critical ICT infrastructure that ensures business continuity by protecting businesses critical applications and data against loss that could arise from natural disasters, acts of terrorism, sabotage, and technical faults among others. 5.10.1 Policy Objectives The government will: (a) (b) (c) (d) Promote Data Centre infrastructure buildout carried out in cognizance of globally approved standards for purposes of ensuring quality of service under open access, carrier neutral model; Develop incentives to ensure and protect investment in the field of data centre; Facilitate the development and enactment of legislation on localization to support growth in IT service consumption – as an engine to spur data centre growth; Ensure that Data is processed fairly and lawfully in accordance with the rights of citizens and obtained only for specific, lawful purposes; 5.10.2 Strategies for Data Centres The government recognizes the important economic role of data centres across all sectors of the economy and in order to deliver value to stakeholders and to guide the continuous growth of the same in both public and private sectors; it will adopt the following strategies: (a) (b) (c) (d) Ensure government Ministries, Departments and Agencies share and optimize data centre ICT infrastructure in order to save costs by eliminating the need for infrastructure expenses incurred by individual agencies and also provide cost efficient, scalable and secure environment for Government data and information; Ensure the security of the Government information is harmonized and managed centrally; Optimal use of human capacity (mainly ICT staff); Encourage neutral data centre providers (third party independent of the companies); 17