ICT trade set to soar in county structure

The ICT sector is eyeing a boom in business once the government devolves services to the county level after the March General Election.

Speaking to the Nation on Friday, Wananchi Group chief technical officer Riyaz Bachani said the uptake of Information Communication Technology (ICT) is likely to improve in the devolved system especially if the government makes available more public services online.

“Governments at the county level will need to liaise with one another and the central government so they will need superior data services. It will even be better if the government takes on solving citizens’ issues online,” Mr Bachani said.

Discourage paper work

Google country manager for Kenya Joe Mucheru asked the government to discourage paper work and queuing in public offices by offering online services.

“The country has a huge Internet capacity (8,400G) but only six per cent is in use at the moment. With the availability of affordable smartphones and other devices, there is no reason for us to be under-using our Internet capacity,” he said.

Experts have cited power shortages, costly devices and data usage rates as some of the main issues impending Internet use. With over 20,000 kilometres of fibre laid across the country, connectivity of this traffic to retail customers — last mile — still remains a challenge.