Kenya calls for revamp of Africa ICT insitute

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  • Mr Omo added that regulators across Africa must embrace a new regime where governments are facilitators of commerce and not ‘policing’ agencies as they had traditionally done.

The government Wednesday called for an overhaul of the Pan-African telecommunications institute to enable it offer relevant technological training in the fast changing ICT world.

Broadcasting and Telecommunications Principal Secretary Sammy Itemere said the African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute(AFRALTI) needs to update its curriculum as well as source for extra funds to enable it improve infrastructure that leverages on new learning avenues such as online, part-time and weekend based sessions.

“New technologies have created new jobs and opportunities that require AFRALTI to adopt fast to keep pace with ICT development. It needs to equip people with necessary ICT skills which ensures Kenyans and Africans at large become part of the digital society,” he said.

Mr Itemere spoke when he officially opened AFRALTI’s 52 Governing Council meeting held in Nairobi.

The Communications Authority (CA) Legal Services Director John Omo called on AFRALTI to move fast and emulate other training institutions that had adopted new strategies that allow for a flexible curriculum for all cadre.

Mr Omo urged AFRALTI to form partnerships with private sector players saying the government had partnered with IBM, Microsoft, Huawei, Oracle, among others to fast-track activities that help reduce ICT skills gap.

New regime

“Mobile associations, infrastructure providers, manufacturers and other technology solution providers are actively sharing knowledge and skills that introduce new models of training delivery that AFRALTI can emulate to leverage on resources,” he said.

Mr Omo added that regulators across Africa must embrace a new regime where governments are facilitators of commerce and not ‘policing’ agencies as they had traditionally done.

This would see countries enjoy faster dispensation of services by public agencies to citizens and execution of online commercial transactions.

“Technical and leadership capacity deficits continue to prevent us from implementing our development strategies and policies on technology. About 73per cent of 45 African countries have medium capacity, 9per cent have low capacity while only 18per cent have high capacity. We require an urgent and concerted effort to address this challenge,” said Mr Itemere.

AFRALTI is an inter-governmental organisation headquartered in Nairobi whose core mandate is to provide human resources capacity building through high-level quality training, consultancy and advisory services to both management and the technical personnel in matters ICT in Africa.

Afralti members are Kenya,Zimbabwe,Uganda,Tanzania,Malawi,Swaziland and Mozambique