Kenya Eyes Tech Firms To Create Job Opportunities

The Kenyan government has committed to working with leading global tech companies to enable the country’s youth to leverage opportunities in the digital space.

President William Ruto, who held a series of meetings with various leaders of international tech companies held at State House Nairobi on Monday 12, 2022 said the partnership will enable the youth to be competitive in the global market. The meeting which was held prior to the country’s 59^th Independence Day (Jamhuri) celebrations included heads of Meta, Microsoft, Google, Master Card, Visa Card, Multichoice, Thunderbird and Estonia Embassy officials.

In his address during the Jamhuri celebrations, President Ruto disclosed that the government had reached an agreement with some of the global technology firms to train the youth in digital skills.

It is time to innovate our way into the future. It is for this reason that, on this Jamhuri Day, we as a nation are staking our claim by rallying Kenyans to begin the work of designing a world much richer, safer, and freer than we have known.

“We have agreed on partnerships to support local organisations in providing opportunities for young Kenyans to acquire training and skills on the various aspects of digital productivity. We are also exploring ways of making the benefits of monetisation of online activity available to Kenyan content creators on more platforms.

“I have spoken directly to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, to monetise content for our digital entrepreneurs that will exponentially multiply incomes and create employment opportunities for others. I am impressed and encouraged by the power of monetisation and remote jobs. This is the way to the future,” the President said.

President Ruto also promised that, in six months, all government services will be available online to improve service delivery to the people.

“We intend to transfer 85 per cent of the remaining government services to digital space so that Kenyans do not have to get into a bus or queue to access government services,” he added.

With a growing digital economy powered by access to the Internet and cheap smartphones, their exist untapped opportunities to generate jobs for millions of unemployed youths in Kenya. In the bid to further improve the country’s Internet penetration and access to the Internet, the Kenyan government has disclosed plans to invest over $300 million to roll out additional fibre.

“We are going to invest over $300 million to roll out 100,000 kilometres of new fibre network to provide Internet in 29,000 schools, 26,000 markets, and ensure that every home that is connected to the electricity is also connected to the Internet,” President Ruto said during the Kenya innovation Week held last week