Transforming the sector will require improvements in competitiveness through extension services, enhancing smallholder links to off-takers, and improvements to transportation infrastructure. Agribusiness is Kenya's largest sector. He also believes that technology can transform domestic farming by helping informal retailers aggregate their buying power and link to farmers.
Population growth and urbanization are driving demand for affordable housing , which is in short supply. Only 10 percent of potential homebuyers in Kenya can afford housing. Access to mortgage financing is limited and out of reach for most low- and middle-income households.
The World Bank estimates a backlog of over 2 million units. Reforms that address the high cost of land, high taxes, permits and regulations, and limited access to construction and housing finance can make housing more accessible to middle- and lower-income households. Stimulating this sector could lead to high development impact by developing skills, creating jobs, and creating local markets--for example, through greater use of local construction materials.
A regional locust infestation, which started early , also affected some parts of Kenya, especially the North East. Nevertheless, moving into a significant economic recovery has been underway, although it remains highly uneven across sectors with some, such as tourism, remaining under severe pressure , and there continues to be elevated uncertainty regarding the outlook. Kenya has made major gains in social development, including reducing child mortality, achieving near universal primary school enrollment, and narrowing gender gaps in education.
Interventions and increased spending on health and education are paying dividends. While the healthcare system has faced challenges recently, including due to COVID coronavirus , devolved health care and free maternal health care at all public health facilities will improve health care outcomes and develop a more equitable health care system.
Addressing the challenges of poverty, inequality, governance, the skills gap between market requirements and the education curriculum, climate change, low investment and low firm productivity to achieve rapid, sustained growth rates that will transform lives of ordinary citizens, will be a major goal for Kenya.
Other investments are in the following: water, energy, ICT sectors, social sectors, urban, agriculture, devolution, governance, justice, law and order, disaster risk management, forced displacements, private sector development, and statistical capacity building.
The four existing projects include support to i the subsidiary of Absa Bank of South Africa to support local lending operations; ii an 87MW Combined Cycle power plant; iii an 83MW HFO plant, and iv an off-grid solar home system company operating in Kenya. Kenya has achieved remarkable progress and developed adequate and diversified generation capacity with close to 90 percent of energy generated from clean sources currently geothermal, hydro, solar and wind , with the country is ranked 8th globally on geothermal capacity development.
Nearly 2 million people are estimated to have fallen into poverty, and nearly , lost their jobs. The growth outlook is positive. The economy is projected to grow by 5. The rebound assumes that economic activity will normalize due to a full reopening of the economy, the Economic Recovery Strategy being successfully implemented, and Kenya capitalizing on an expected improvement in external liquidity and benefiting from initiatives to meet its external financing needs.
The external initiatives could include debt refinancing, restructuring and debt service relief, and additional concessional loans. The new law further states that all government ICT procurement processes will give preference to local ICT companies in the award of tenders, including sectors like defense and security. Further, where local businesses cannot fulfil tender requirements, foreign companies will now be required to transfer skills and personnel to local firms.
Foreign companies have until August to adhere to this requirement. In November , the government passed a new Data Protection Act DPA which saw the establishment of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner whose role will be to oversee the implementation of and enforcement of the Act.
The Data Privacy law further provides guidance on data processors, storage, localization criteria and provides guidance to data processors on punishable offences and dispute mechanisms. It defines the current and forward-looking position of the government on various areas of the evolving and emerging technology landscape in Kenya.
Mobile First: This covers investments in the infrastructure needed for work such as data centers, hardware, software, telecommunications, networks, and broadcasting. It seeks to create an enabling environment for the local assembly and manufacturing of devices. The policy will strengthen payments and logistics infrastructure and stimulate growth and adoption of local e-commerce platforms with global reach. It creates a provision of trusted security and certification infrastructure for all electronic communication and transactions.
The policy also promotes accessible news and media platforms both off and online, and affordable marketing and advertising platforms. In doing so, the policy will provide a blueprint for creating things - infrastructure platforms for sellers and buyers; rules - carefully crafted rules that ensure that there is fairness in the marketplace, that transactions are honored, contracts and agreements are enforced, and that that scarce national resources such as spectrum and rights-of-way are fairly allocated; money - use of ICT to enable more people to make more money faster.
Money, technology, and people are the drivers of the digital economy. By mirroring the physical entities used in business, such as bank notes, land titles, certificates and so on with digital equivalents, business can be assisted to move much faster since it is no longer limited by the time it physically takes to move a business item from one geographic location to another.
Skills and Innovation: The policy outlines a careful plan designed to jump-start a self-supporting ecosystem that will produce world-class research, technology products and industries.
The technology environment is changing fast, and Kenya needs to not just keep up but to lead the charge. To ensure that Kenya is on the right track, the MoICT will every two years reassess research and development priorities and set five new technology goals. The government will fund investment in the selected new technologies, encourage the private sector to focus on the identified research and investment priority areas and help create skills in those technologies by funding scholarships, grants, challenges, and innovation awards.
Public Service Delivery: The policy states that all government will be efficient and open, and all government services must be available online so that every Kenyan has online access and that government services. The Vision aspires to make Kenya a globally competitive and informed society that effectively participates in the knowledge-based economy, and it also identifies ICT as a key enabler in the achievement of economic pillars and a critical factor in driving the economic, social, and political development in our country.
The blueprint identifies five key pillars as foundations for the growth of a digital economy. The Blueprint also highlights the cross-cutting issues that need to be considered for the success of a digital economy. With the global pandemic forcing millions of Kenyan students and employees to study and work remotely, the demand for personal computers is expected to continue to rise.
Consumer Electronics and Smart Devices: The consumer electronics market is expected to register double digit growth by the end of With the COVID pandemic, the use of smart devices such as tables and smart phones continues to grow. However, the lower- to middle-end of the market is price sensitive, resulting in wide use of cheap and often counterfeit mobile devices that are easily available and often sold as original devices to unsuspecting customers. In a move to fight the growing counterfeit problem in the sector, the GOK switched off all counterfeit phones from the GSM network crating market for genuine phones.
ADSL equipment will continue to have a market as homeowners and apartment owners continue to install Internet services in existing buildings to build their attractiveness to potential tenants.
Smart phones and smart devices are also expected to have significant sales as the largest internet population consists of teenagers and young adults who have adapted to accessing the Internet on handheld devices.
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