John Ngumi leaves Konza board, to join Kenya Pipeline Company

Mr John Ngumi, the chairman of Board of Directors of the Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA), has moved to Kenya Pipeline Company Ltd in the same capacity.

According to My Gov, ICT Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i lead the stakeholder family of Konza Technopolis Development Authority to bid farewell to the outgoing Chairman of the Board of Directors, last week on Friday.

Mr Ngumi joined KoTDA in 2012 after he was appointed by the then President, Mwai Kibaki. He was given the role of guiding the search for investors and cash for the tech city that will be developed through a private-public partnership financing model. The government will provide basic infrastructure like roads and electricity while a master developer will build and sell the premises to tech firms.

Ngumi is an investment banker who has made a reputation in corporate Kenya in closing deals and raising finance for companies. He is the current Director of the Investment Banking Coverage division for East Africa at Standard Bank Africa. Prior to joining Standard Bank, he worked in various capacities at Citibank, Barclays, Citibank, Grindlays, and National Westminster Bank.

He is also a founder of one of East Africa’s first independent investment banking groups, Loita Capital Partners.

He holds Bachelor of Arts (1st Class Honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics) from St. Peter’s College, University of Oxford, UK.

The first phase of Konza City is expected to create over 20,000 direct and indirect jobs. The city will be developed as a public private partnership, in which the Government will take a minimal role, developing the public infrastructure and regulatory guidelines.

As part of Vision 2030, Konza will be a sustainable, world class technology hub and major economic driver for Kenya. Konza was initially conceived to capture the growing global Business Processing Outsourcing and Information Technology Enabled Services (BPO/ITES) sectors in Kenya.

The technopolis is expected to host various amenities including research centres, a university complex, offices, commercial and residential houses and parks. It is also expected to host foreign and local business process outsourcing companies, a science park, a convention centre, hotels, shopping malls, international schools and health facilities.

Construction of roads and an electricity network have already started at the site after Parliament allocated the project an additional Kshs 400 million, raising the total allocation to Kshs 900 million. The 5,000-acre tech city is meant to be part of special economic zones that will replace the export processing zones and create more than 17,000 jobs.