Paul Kukubo, the chief executive of the Kenya ICT Board, revealed what he believes are the priorities for Kenya”s technology sector at today’s IBM Innovation Centre launch, as he prepares to leave his position in a month.
Open government data was Kukubo’s first priority. He said there is too much information hidden by the government which needs to be open for the public.
The census was an example that Kukubo gave to show what citizens need and do not get.
He followed that by saying government needed to improve its spending on ICT.
He said: “Spending on ICT in Kenya between 2011 -2014 is KSh14 billion (US$166.7m ) which is too little.”
One piece of advice he gave was for governors not to look for tenders, but rather for partnerships to end questionable expenditures.
“Government does not have the capacity to do things we want to do,” Kukubo said. “Though if the government allow ICT to drive on values and pay attention to partnerships a lot will be achieved.”
Kukubo said as the government partner with companies such as IBM, ICT growth will be inevitable.
Regarding university education, the ICT expert said students should be taught how to solve problems so they are eager to do so as soon as they graduate.
Mr Kukubo commended Kenyans in most counties for electing capable governors, especially in Nairobi.
He said the governors are paying attention to the right things and so Kenya will be growing rapidly in the next five years.
Kukubo last piece of advice was for the adoption of “creative thinking” around cloud services and commended IBM for being a “wonderful partner”.
“This sector is Big but it can be made bigger with creative thinking,” he concluded.
