The launch of Kenya’s National ICT Master Plan, detailing how Kenya intends to position itself as a leader in ICT investment and innovation by 2017, has been postponed with only a day to go.
The launch was due to take place tomorrow (November 29) at the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi, but the Kenya ICT Board today announced that it has been postponed until January.
“We tend to push crazy deadlines at the Kenya ICT Board,” ICT Board CEO Paul Kukubo told HumanIPO. “Wisdom prevailed in the end.”
“We had some major edits occasioned by the progress we have made on Konza Technology City Master-planning,” he said. “These are now being incorporated into the final masterplan for the launch.”
He did, however, issue an assurance that there will be no major changes in the “overall strategic and foundational pillars” of the document.
“December will be a slow month with many people on vacation for the annual Christmas break so January is seen as a better time for launch. It allows us to have some crucial guests.
“We had pushed ourselves to a very tight deadline and we perhaps had not allowed our teams the time and space for adequate preparation. We rarely postpone our events and we assure that we shall have a fantastic event in the end.”
The plan is expected to project that by 2017 Kenya’s ICT industry should be contributing an estimated $2 billion (25 percent of Kenya’s GDP), as well as have created 500 ICT companies and 50,000 jobs.
The blueprint has been developed by the Ministry of Information and Communication and is intended to drive citizen adoption of the Vision 2030 priorities through ICT policies and initiatives.
Kenya has seen tremendous growth in the ICT sector over the last decade, attracting several investors from abroad and seeing the establishment of a number of tech hubs, such as the iHub.
