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President Kenyatta to deliver keynote at #InnovKE today
This was announced through Director of Digital Media and Diaspora Communication, Dennis Itumbi’s, twitter handle where he said “@President_KE will…
This was announced through Director of Digital Media and Diaspora Communication, Dennis Itumbi’s, twitter handle where he said “@President_KE will tomorrow attend the #InnovKE function at KICC with the message of how the digital space is Transforming Opportunities.”
Today will also see a key discussion with Government of Kenya officials and private sector representatives discuss on innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship.
The two-day event, themed ‘Mind the Gap: Close the Gap’, kicked off yesterday with industry stakeholders engaging in talks about various topics and exploring the needs of the innovation ecosystem and also in ways of coming up with solutions to address barriers in the market.
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With a focus on Kenyan Start-ups, the forum also brought together top levels of decisions makers in the innovation ecosystem. This include, solution providers/innovators, academia and research institutions, government policy makers, bilateral organizations, venture capitalists, incubation labs, and ICT consumers.
Speaking at the event Victor Kyalo, CEO, ICT Authority, said that the forum will become part of the ICT calendar.” As we end the two days we hope to come up with the solutions of closing the ICT gap. In the last two years Kenya has made a mark in the world as an ICT leader and we have all innovations in record starting with “M” something, this phenomenal revolution has positioned Kenya as a place for innovation investment. We believe as we work across the dream of achieving a Silicon Savannah we will be able to achieve this. Thus our business in this forum is knowing the gaps and coming up with a solution too close the gap so that we can achieve our Sillicon Savannah dream.”
Also speaking during the official opening of the forum, Dr Fred Matiang’i, CS, Ministry of ICT, who said that the forum was a great platform for collaboration with government and the private sector. He also pointed out that the Government of Kenya is very keen to support the ICT sector hence need for partnership with private sector. Adding that the ICT sector was rated best in collaboration with the Private sector.
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Dr Matiang’i also added that in partnership with private sector the Government had established enterprise Kenya foundation and called upon the public to contribute to this action point. The Ministry of ICT has also developed a local content policy to support ICT innovation.
Speaking on how to use innovation to solve Kenya’s problems Kenya ICT Outsourcing Society Chair and CEO Seven Seas Technologies, Michael Macharia said that as we focus the Digital dream we should ask ourselves if Silicon Savannah is a state of mind or a place. “We are in a position where as a country we can be seen as champions in Innovations as IT needs to be recognized as a major economic pillar in the country. We need to look at how we can create innovations and still create value out of them and how we can still sell the innovations outside Kenya. ”
The two day event aligns to the vision 2030 development blue print that identifies ICT as being an enabler of industry and having the opportunity to create wealth and jobs for the county. Sponsors of the event include Safaricom, Microsoft, Konza Techno City, and Huawei.