and infrastructure will provide an enabling
environment for businesses to raise capital, list
on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and attract
foreign direct investment. The policy will also
encourage both local and international
businesses to be domiciled in Kenya, and get
high returns. This will in turn attract and retain
global talent in Kenya.
The Government will leverage our skills
and innovations to grow our businesses and
provide a strong intellectual property
infrastructure to ensure innovations are
protected. It will enable a 24hr economy,
enforce the use of the National Public Key
Infrastructure and ensure all safety nets are in
place to protect our money and investments.
4.3 Skills and Innovation
This policy outlines a careful plan designed
to jump-start a self-supporting ecosystem that
will produce world-class research, technology
products and industries. The technology
environment is changing fast and Kenya needs
to not just keep up but to lead the charge. In
order to ensure that we are always on the right
track, every two years we will reassess
research and development priorities and set
five new technology goals. The government will
fund investment in the selected new
technologies, encourage the private sector to
focus on the identified research and investment
priority areas and help create skills in those
technologies by funding scholarships, grants,
challenges and innovation awards.
Our people need gainful work, by ensuring
incentive and educational alignment with
global market requirements; Kenyans will be in
demand both locally and internationally for
technical work. We want to be leaders and
innovators in the fourth industrial revolution
and so we want to attract and create the best
educational institutions in the world. We will
continue to encourage partnerships such as the
International Space Program in Malindi and
ensure that our curriculum takes into account
the gig economy, generating a skilled workforce
that is attractive globally.
By 2020, there will be over 5 billion
connected people worldwide; the average
internet user will be from the emerging
markets and we want to connect with them on
all digital platforms. Our unique culture and
languages put our Country in a strategic
position to innovate for the emerging markets,
forming partnerships and strategies that guide
our training and skills generation.
The Government will support and enable
the development of a robust technology
entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country
Ministry of ICT, Kenya
through an ICT Co-Fund that will unlock
requisite capital, avail easy access to critical
technical assistance and actively promote the
adoption and utilisation of local innovations.
Public long-term funds will be incentivised to
set aside 5% of their investments for the local
ICT ecosystem.
The Government will work to encourage
early Initial Public Offerings in the Growth
Enterprise Market Segment of the Capital
Market (GEMS) and support the growth of
Permanent Listed Vehicles that build bridges
between investors and the businesses that need
investment to grow.
Government ICT procurement, including
security and defence, will prioritise award of
tenders to new and innovative local businesses
to permit greater participation by emerging
enterprises and preferentially adopt home
grown solutions. Kenyan built solutions will be
preferred over any other solution; where there
are no local businesses that meet the tender
requirements, skills transfer to local firms and
personnel will be a mandatory requirement.
4.4 Public Service Delivery
It is our policy that all government services
must be available online, that every Kenyan has
online access and that government services are
delivered quickly and fully at the time and place
that they are needed. This ICT policy requires
all arms of government to build, deploy,
operate and manage locally built back-end and
front end systems to deliver services. This
policy also requires that Kenyan data remains
in Kenya, and that it is stored safely and in a
manner that protects the privacy of citizens to
the utmost. Government services will be
delivered in a manner that ensures we have a
prosperous, free, open and stable society.
This policy aims to promote the
collaboration of the National and County
governments to ensure that all services, both
physical and digital reach every citizen at a
guaranteed high level of quality. The ICT policy
requires that:
Service charters be published by the public
sector and citizens sensitised about them.
Government services be easily accessible to
all citizens using their mobile devices
anywhere and anytime.
All procurement and tender processes be
electronically published and open to all.
8/37
November-2019