Konza Technopolis has officially commenced the construction of a Centre of Excellence Digital Hub in Riruta, located in Dagoretti South, Nairobi.
The announcement was made on Friday during a groundbreaking ceremony attended by various stakeholders.
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Expansion of Jitume digital hubs nationwide
The government is constructing Jitume Digital Hubs in all 1,450 administrative divisions of the nation in collaboration with the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) to improve digital skills.
“We have been rolling out Jitume Hubs in our Technical and vocational changes, and we are glad to see the youths have gained appropriate digital skills enabling them to gain employment or undertake income-generating activities,” Tanui said.
“Now we are targeting the youths outside learning institutions by constructing the hubs in each ward,” John Paul Okwiri, CEO of Konza Technopolis, stated
The Jitume Hub will be the first of 1,450 digital hubs in all 1,450 wards of the country.
“This groundbreaking signifies the start of the 1,450 digital hubs in all the wards in the country,” Eng. John Tanui said while officiating the groundbreaking.
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Kenya kwanza government’s digital superhighway agenda
The Kenya Kwanza government’s Bottom Up Economic Transformation Plan (BETA), the Digital Superhighway Plan, has five key areas, including the Jitume Digital Hub Program.
“The Digital Superhighway agenda involves the construction of digital hubs, the construction of 100,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable, digitisation of the government services and provision of internet services in all public facilities,” Eng.
Tanui said, adding that under Jitume, the government has built 290 hubs and trained over 400,000 youth.
Jitume will build three hubs, including the Centre of Excellence Digital Innovation Hub.
“Each constituency will build a model Center of Excellence Hub, which will be equipped with 100 devices, a standard digital hub to have 50 desktop computers and a normal digital hub with 30 desktops, and they will be open to the public to allow them obtain digital skills,” Hon. John Kiarie, the MP of Dagoretti South and Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee of Information, Technology and Innovation said.
The NG-CDF Committee upped the budget to Ksh100 million to encourage digital centre building.
“We have allocated more resources to the constituencies CDF to ensure they complete the Jitume Digital Hub within this financial year,” Hon. Musa Sirma, the National Assembly Select Committee Chairman on NG-CDF and MP for Eldama Ravine, said.