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The Best Practices In A Smart Government
Coming fresh from attending the United Nations Governance Assembly, Kenya’s Special Envoy on Technology, Amb Philip Thigo, had lessons to share on how we can successfully build a Smart Government in Africa. Amb Thigo shared this in his keynote presentation at the Smart Government Summit, organized by dx5, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Nairobi.
Given his role as the Special Envoy on Technology, Amb Thigo believes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the bottom-line to achieving a successful smart government. However, he says, we need to look at technology adoption in the region.
“In East Africa, the reality is that less than 30 percent of citizens have access to technology. Out of that number, 94 percent of those use technology for simply messaging and chatting. This shows that there’s a lot of untapped potential when it comes to the use of technology in this region,” Amb Thigo said in his keynote address at the event.
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He further gave the story of the growth of artificial intelligence to what it is today and showed that there’s so much potential in using it to build smart governments. He gave an example of the disconnect between someone who started using AI earlier to one who is only starting today showing how that disconnect affects the process of developing a smart government.
“One issue is that we are creating inequalities where the early adopters understand this technology more than those who are playing catch-up. There’s a disconnect in the public sector where the citizens are ahead of the government,” Amb Thigo noted.
“Public sector people are focusing on pain points and not really having a long-term strategic thinking. We need to change our mindsets, it needs to stop being linear,” he added.
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Amb Thigo advocates for heavy investment by the government into technology, and by that, he means all the aspects of it.
“We need to invest in the data, the energy, the skills and in cultivating partnerships. They are all interdependent, you have to invest in all of them,” he advised.
The Smart Government Summit is set for the 2nd and 3rd October 2024 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Nairobi. This event has brought together key players in the government space to discuss on how to integrate technology in governance and creating a transformative change by leveraging on AI.