Kenya seeks World Bank funding for several digital projects

Many digital projects are underway in Kenya. The government has given itself ten years to carry them out, in partnership with the private sector and the World Bank.

Kenya wants to launch in the coming months, its project to deploy 100,000 km of optical fiber in the country. The Minister of Information and Technology, Eliud Owalo, announced that the country has requested financial assistance from the World Bank to partially support it in the realization of this vast project.

Speaking on Thursday (February 23, 2023) at the third edition of the Nation Media Group’s Digital Summit in Mombasa, Eliud Owalo said that “with the approval of the government already in place, we are now ready to deploy a first tranche of 5,000 kilometers by June 2023.”

 “We are also in talks with the World Bank, through the National Treasury, to secure part of the financing for the Digital Highway, through the Kenya Digital Economy Acceleration Project (KDEAP). ” added Eliud Owalo.

The fiber optic project in question is part of a set of projects provided for in the National Digitalization Plan (2022-2032). It was first announced in October by President William Ruto and approved on January 30.

Other equally important digital projects for the country were also announced by the Minister of Information and Technology, including the establishment of a national identity system for the digital identification of Kenyans by June, the digitization of 5000,100 government services on the e-citizen portal, and the digitization of the land registry that could potentially unlock 790 million shillings of revenue from of the land sector.