EAC States on a joint roadmap to foster digital transformation as EACO Congress kicks off in Nairobi

By Monica MUEMA

The EAC member States have been urged to speak in one language if the quest to achieve a Cross-sectoral EAC Regional Digital agenda is to be fully attained

Digital transformation remains a top priority for the EAC bloc, but to succeed, member States will have to focus on two elements; affordability (of digital services and processes) and access.

This was the resounding plea at this year’s 29th Annual Assemblies and the EACO Extraordinary Congress taking place in Nairobi.

The week-long convention themed, “Promoting digital transformation in the EAC region,” is expected to provide the EAC member states with an opportunity to reflect on our individual and collective efforts to leverage the power of digital transformation to grow our economies.

By aligning the EAC around a shared vision for digital transformation and establishing a Shared Services Platform, the member states will in the next week seek to overcome the issue of fragmented systems and redundant investments within each Partner State, enabling harmonized, efficient, and scalable ubiquitous digital services across the region.

“We are proud that so far 17,000 government services have been digitalized and are available on the E-Citizen platform, making it possible for our citizens, coupled with Internet connectivity and device affordability, to seamlessly access these services wherever they are,” ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo.

Regional integration efforts in the East African Community (EAC) have advanced rapidly in recent years as the EAC Partner States move to harmonize their economies, transform their societies, and improve standards of living.

EAC leaders have made regional digital transformation a key pillar of the EAC’s modernization agenda, as laid out in Vision 2050 and the 6th EAC Development strategy.

In 2019 for instance all heads of Partner States of the EAC approved the roadmap, ten-year strategy, and costed implementation plan for the Digital Regional East African Community Health Initiative (the Digital REACH Initiative or DRI), which is overseen by the EACs’ East African Health Research Commission (EAHRC).

Back home, the Kenyan Government is on course to deploy 100,000km of fibre and establish 25,000 WIFI hotspots and 1,450 ICT hubs across the country in the next five years which it aims to undertake through a public-private partnerships (PPPs) model.

“I am proud to see over 10,000 kilometres of fibre laid so far, and over 2,000 WIFI hotspots deployed, with the government now exploring cost-effective and efficient ways, including emerging technologies, to deliver last-mile connectivity across the country,” said CS Eliud Owalo during the 29th Annual Assemblies and the EACO Extraordinary Congress in Nairobi.

The establishment of 1,450 ICT hubs and 25,000 WIFI hotspots are geared towards creating digital marketplaces and boosting connectivity to traders and entrepreneurs, particularly the youth, to get gainful employment in the digital ecosystem.

We are alive to the need to ensure that to fully exploit the potential of the digital economy, we need the right digital skills for our people, as well as the necessary devices to access the ICT resources around them. We have trained nearly 390,000 of our youths on digital skills in our Jitume programme, and many more are earmarked going forward. Equally, we have created about 139,000 digital jobs so far.