Bungoma County to set up Kshs 250 million iHub Centre

The iHub centre is being set up at Matili Technical Training Institute in Kimilili Sub County at a cost of Kshs 250 million and when complete, it will enable the county to migrate from analogue to digital platform.

“Website linkages, and other e-county enterprises will need a centralized ICT hub as the platform for all e-transactions and this is the reason for us to have a centralized place where we can acquire such services,” the ICT boss Leonard Wakoli explained.

According to Bungoma County website, local and wide area networks are established and centralized in the County iHUB, the county would enjoy new technical freedoms resulting in improved service delivery to public and private sector, increased revenue to the county and the eradication of poverty in the county.

Training of highly specialized certification courses will not only offer rare and expensive training opportunities to the local residents at affordable fees but also to the country and the entire East Africa region.

Wakoli noted that iHUB is envisaged to become a serious innovation and mentoring centre to anybody talented in ICT, particularly the girl child.

The iHUB is envisaged to offer the much needed internship opportunities to students looking for industrial attachment from universities and middle –level colleges in Bungoma County and the whole country.

The centre will as well provide computer access and specialized training to university and middle level college leavers to equip them with the necessary skills, thus making highly employable and self-employed.

The ICT director said that the centre will also provide high speed Internet access for research, Training students how to conduct Internet research and accessing on-line job opportunities and offer computer literacy training to the people in the neighbourhood.

“The iHUB will also help the County to raise revenue for the county through consultancy services and sell of any application systems developed at the Centre, we will also provide employment opportunities to technology experts who will train other people,” he said.

He said they will also offer highly specialized programmes such Cyber Security, Mobile Application Development and System Auditing.

Wakoli said the situation of internet facility in Bungoma County is being made affordable by the county government through the ICT directorate and partnerships with public and private entities.

The county expects to raise funds for the construction of the iHUB centre through Cycling from Matili Technical Training Institute in Kimilili town to Mombasa in the Coast where several County ICT personnel will participate.