Leveraging The Power Of The Digital Economy To Achieve Kenya Vision 2030

UN Secretary-General Guterres has stated: “The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst global crisis since the Second World War”. The year 2020 came with a pandemic and it was an extremely difficult and unusual year for everyone around the world.

In 2020, people’s way of life changed greatly, challenging economic development to an unprecedented extent. In 2020, traditional industries struggled, and new business models such as teleworking, online education, e-commerce, and telemedicine developed disruptively.

In 2020, the fight against the pandemic and economic recovery was the top priorities of every country, and Kenya set an example for Africa in both the fight against the pandemic and economic recovery: Kenya was one of the first African countries to adopt and implement a string of rigorous policies, and one of the few countries to have positive economic growth in 2020.

Crisis often stimulates change and brings new momentum for economic growth. These new business models and practices have accelerated digital transformation among traditional industries. Globally, the digital economy has become the growth engine for the entire economy.

It has become a key tool for countries to drive economic recovery and growth. According to Oxford Economics, the long-term return on investment for digital technologies is 6.7 times more than that of non-digital investments.

During the pandemic, many countries have revised their digital economy strategies and increased investments. Data from several countries, including China, South Korea, and Thailand, confirm that digital technology has accelerated economic recovery.

Kenya is also on the road to digital transformation. In 2017, the third medium-term plan for Kenya Vision 2030 regarded ICT as a fast-growing industry.

Two years later, President Kenyatta released the Digital Economy Blueprint at the 2019 Transform Africa Summit, making Kenya the first country in Africa to do so. He hailed ICT as a key factor in the political, economic, and social development of Kenya that would accelerate the realization of Vision 2030.

We are pleased with the knowledge that Kenya, under the President’s leadership, has established a working group on the digital economy and has already actualized several achievements.

Towards the end of 2020, the government released the draft Digital Economy Strategy, which further clarified the strategic direction Kenya’s digital economy development would take, and updated it based on what has happened during the pandemic.

Online work, online education, and e-commerce have expanded faster than could have been imagined, mitigating the economic and social impacts of the pandemic and laying a strong foundation for the future.

In a recent TNTP Public Hearings Presentation, National Treasury statistics showed that Kenya’s overall economic growth rate was predicted to be 0.6 percent for 2020. The ICT industry growth was 8.8 percent, the second-fastest-growing industry. It is gratifying that Huawei is a contributor to this.

 The construction of digital infrastructure is a top priority when developing the digital economy and ecosystem. Huawei has been operating in Kenya for over two decades. During this period, the company has worked with telecommunication companies and helped with the growth in mobile network coverage.

Thanks to the efforts of multiple stakeholders, this coverage has now reached 96 percent of the nation’s population, with the figure projected to increase in the coming years. With this proliferation came a growth in mobile money transfer (M-PESA), which currently serves over half of Kenya’s population and is a significant contributor to the country’s economy.

Huawei has also worked with the Ministry of ICT to build the National Optical Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI), providing links to local government offices across the 47 counties nationwide. Joe Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of ICT, said that the government has made tremendous progress in digitization efforts and commended Huawei’s continuing contribution towards growing Kenya’s digital economy.

With regards to cybersecurity, Huawei has always held both cybersecurity and privacy protection to be of paramount importance. We have implemented and maintained a comprehensive end-to-end cybersecurity assurance system. For decades, we have maintained a solid track record in security in Kenya and across the globe.

We are referencing industry best practices to build a system that is sustainable, reliable, and compliant with applicable laws and international telecom standards. This system covers everything from policies, organizational structures, processes, and management to technologies and standard practice to fully meet our customers’ demands.

In addition, since the pandemic began in Kenya, Huawei has pro-actively fulfilled our corporate social responsibility with various donations including videoconferencing equipment and thermal imaging thermometers to various organizations, including the Ministry of Health who has used them to co-ordinate the pandemic response, and share experiences with international partners in China and beyond.