Digitization Will Power The Next Phase Of Our Economy

By Soko Directory Team / Published June 25, 2018 | 12:33 pm

Since 2008, Kenya has been on a race towards a social, economic and political resurgence, promising a middle-income economy powered by knowledge-based economy by the year 2030. More recently, the government has set out the big Four agenda – a key catalyst to realizing this blueprint.

This journey, by design or default, has identified ICTs as what will power the key sectors of Manufacturing, Affordable Housing, Food Security, and Affordable Healthcare. In turn, this will see digitization play a key role in addressing challenges facing Kenyans in general – with sectors such as finance, health, education, agriculture and the public sector quickly embracing technology to build on public data, enhance service delivery and reach customers more effectively.

According to the 2018 Economic Survey; data on the 2017 economy depicts a stellar performance by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) demonstrating the sector’s impact on the economy.

The Survey attributes the sector’s 11% growth in 2017 from 9.7% in 2016 to an expanding digital economy through mobile telephony, e-commerce, online training as well as tax administration contributing to economic growth.

While the mobile telephony sector, call traffic, short message service (SMS) and mobile money value in monetary terms has shot through the roof, the opportunity for collective growth of the economy lies in a digitized economy that is in tandem with data growth.

This growth is defined in two waves – first, the ongoing efforts to ensure basic connectivity to increase internet penetration followed by aggressive efforts to leverage data for the new digital economy.

For more on this article, Visit Aldo Mareuse, the CEO of Telkom Kenya on LinkedIn

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system.Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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