Konza City the future 'Silicon Valley' of Africa………….

Quoting the Kenyan Prime minister his Excellency Mr. Laila Odinga “We are inviting investors in ICT to come and invest in Konza city which is one of vision 2030 flagship projects'' adding that ‘'we are determined to make it the Silicone valley and Bangalore of Africa” . The prime minister spoke convincingly, convincing investors to come and invest in the project. 

Konza City is the vision of the Kenyan government while some people might say is the day time dream of the Kenyans I would say Kenyans knows how to get things done. This is another big development plan I heard from them, actually few days back me and my colleagues at the port of Dar es Salaam we were discussing about the Port of Lamu project and the challenges it will bring to the East Africa marine and shipping industry. If  the city project will be successful then it’s inevitable that Kenya would be the next Africa IT giant. 

Actually I have lived in Bangalore for few years I know the place with large multi-national tech companies operating on the city. Actually the vital decision was made in the 1970’s when R. K. Baliga the first Chairman and Managing Director of Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation he viewed the city as the electronic city, meaning that he wanted the city to turn into Silicon Valley with the like of Santa Clara Valley, California, believe me you go to Bangalore today with no doubts it is the IT hub of Asia. I can see the same if Kenya decides to put practical effort into the project and remove rooms bureaucracy and corruption.

  

The high-tech Indian city, which is home to major tech outsourcing companies such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Technologies, now, employs 160,000 tech workers. Information-technology work accounts for 100, 000 of these jobs, with the rest in business outsourcing and call centers. This means that if Kenya’s Konza city will work it will be a source of job opportunities to thousands of Kenyan’s and other EA citizens. The fact that Bangalore is the IT hub of Asia helps to raise the income of the Karnataka state and the central government of India.

The PM said that Konza city will create vast employment opportunities in the country especially for the youth. He stated that the government was committed to meeting the global 2015 digital switchover dateline. In this regard, his said that the government will continue to encourage key players in the industry like StarTimes media to advantage of the huge market in country by diversifying investments in the sector. However, he noted a big challenge remains in the general understanding of what digital migration is all about. The PM therefore called upon stakeholders to sensitize the Kenyan public to enable them understands benefits that lie ahead with successful migration.

It is a great initiative to the Kenyans and East Africa in general we expect these kind of projects to really practically work out as Tanzania having their own project “Kigamboni the new city” still on the paper works somewhere in the office.