The government is rolling out a digital literacy program in order to achieve its bottom-up economic transformation agenda for schools across the country.
In the new concept, laboratories will be targeted in a bid to scale up digital literacy and enhance access to digital skills among the youth and members of the public.
The program targets secondary schools, Universities, Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET), Vocational Training Centers (VTC), and village ICT hubs to facilitate the training.
A total of 23,000 devices will be installed in institutions across the country.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo said the digital literacy program was critical for the government to achieve its bottom-up economic transformation agenda.
Owalo noted that through the laboratories, the youth and other segments of the population at the bottom of the pyramid were set to benefit.
He said the initiative targets to enhance digital literacy and skills amongst the youth and members of the public as the government moves to accelerate access to the internet through the digital superhighway project/
Owalo said the move was in tandem with the government’s plans of leveraging technology to make it efficient and effective at the same time digitization of its services.
Speaking during the launch of a digital laboratory at Maseno School in Kisumu County, Owalo noted that so far, over 6000 services have been digitized with additional services set to be uploaded on the Ecitizen platform before the end of the year.
The CS also noted that they are setting up a total of 25, 000 free public wifi hotspots spread equally across the country targeting segments of youths and small-scale traders.
He asked them to take advantage of the digital laboratories and training and leverage on the free public wifi installed at various markets and bus parks across the country to venture into e-commerce.
The CS also noted that the government he disclosed was in the process of rolling out a national address system and digital identification cards to make e-commerce a reality.
Former Kisumu Senator Hon Fred Outa hailed the ICT Ministry for its robust approach to place the country on the world map.
Outa who is the Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) in the Ministry of Blue Economy, Mining and Maritime Affairs said ICT has made the world a global village.
“Right now, you can know what is happening in every part of the world in the comfort of your house thanks to ICT,” said Outa.
Outa further told the students to take advantage of the digital laboratory to learn and explore.
“This is a tool that will connect you to the entire world and be able to learn about the history and culture of different countries,” he said.
He said President William Ruto’s administration has prioritized ICT and it is upon Kenyans to grab the opportunity and grow.
The CAS also noted that the government was in the process of rolling out a national addressing system and digital identification cards to make e-commerce a reality.
He said the government is set to roll out the locally assembled cheap smartphones in August.
Owalo while reiterating the government’s plans of leveraging technology to make it efficient and effective noted that this will scale up the uptake of the digital infrastructure installed by the government.
He said it is their preposition based on the feasibility studies that have been undertaken that the phones be rolled out in the market at a unit cost of Sh5627 (40 Dollars).
The CS noted that the device will scale up consumption of online government services and online work.
“We are going to roll out our first batch of locally assembled and affordable smartphones in the Kenyan Market to ensure that many Kenyans make use of the digital infrastructure installed by the government,” he told the media.
The CS added that the device is integral because the country has a digital infrastructure and people with digital skills.
He said they are keen to facilitate affordable telephone handsets to enable the youths and members of the public to be able to consume the virtual government services from the comfort of wherever they are.
“The government is doing this in partnership with private donors to ensure it enhances the uptake of the services and at the same time offers job opportunities to many people across the board.
“The government has opened talks with the global digital technology giants to link them with Kenyan youths for opportunities to work online.” He said
By Faith Matete
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