Treasury, ICT ministries form team to spur digital economy

The National Treasury and Planning Acting Cabinet Secretary Ambassador Ukur Yatani and ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru Monday constituted a technical working group drawn from the two Ministries and the World Bank to work together to ensure that on-going ICT projects aimed at creating a Digital Economy are undertaken in a coordinated manner to avoid duplication.

The working group to be chaired by ICT Principal Secretary Mr Jerome Ochieng have been tasked to come up with a clear Road map on how the projects geared towards driving the Country will embrace digital economy.

Amb. Yatani said that the importance of digital economy cannot be under estimated noting that adoption of the same will help not only government and parastatal and the private sector avoid wastages.

“We need to have a clear road-map because with ICT the danger is you will be obsolete if you don’t have clear time-frames to execute them,” Yatani said.

The Treasury Secretary also emphasized on the need to prioritize the integration of ICTs in development plans because of the immense economic transformation potential they hold.

Cabinet Secretary Mucheru said that central role Kenya plays in the digital economy in Africa saying Kenya has launched a blueprint for the rest of Africa fashioning a special intervention targeted at empowering young people with practical ICT skills.

Mucheru added that so far 24 African nations have officially joined the African Digital economy alliance which represents 660 million people.

The CS said that the government will continue leveraging on the emerging digital market to enable country attain the vision 2030 and the Big 4 agenda.

The meeting which was held at the Treasury Building was to appraise the acting Treasury CS Amb. Ukur Yatani on an ambitious program that will see Governments digitize their day to day activities.

World Bank Senior Digital Specialist Casey Torgusson lauded Kenya for prioritizing and embracing technology which will improve service delivery and help in expanding markets.

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chief of Staff, Policy and Strategy, executive office of the President Ruth Kagia and Word Bank operations officer Rosemary Ngesa Otieno