World Bank Group has agreed to offer Ksh. 52bn for the project of Kenya of installing free Wi-Fi hotspots in different areas so as to reduce internet costs.
The Kenya Digital Acceleration Project’s first phase aims to increase the availability of high internet speed, improve the quality of education and digitize government services. The amount to be disbursed will cater for this first phase of the project
25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots will be allocated in different areas across the country and this will provide free internet access to innovators, youths and entrepreneurs.
Due to the high demand for internet services worldwide, the availability of this service will be of great benefit. People will be able to gain more access to information, jobs and inclusivity to what is happening in society.
World Bank Country Director for Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda, Keith Hansen said: “Broadening access to digital technologies and services is a cross-cutting pathway to accelerate economic growth and job creation, improves service delivery and build resilience”.
Kenya continuously seeks to promote itself as a tech hub for Africa, attracting giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Google.
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They use Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria as their launching platform for huge interest in Africa’s market by taking advantage of evolving economies with the daily increase in internet access, especially from the youths.
The project backed up by World Bank will be expected to mobilize a further Ksh. 13.3bn from the private ownership for the broadband infrastructure advancement project.
There are more activities that will be included in the project and these include local manufacture of cheap smart devices to increase access to the Internet via phones, rehabilitation of 2500 kilometres of damaged or old fibre network, the establishment of village digital hubs and studios in all of Kenya’s 1,450 wards and the establishment of a regional integration connectivity network.
Safaricom launched a program in partnership with Google in 2020. The program allows its customers to pay for 4G-enabled phones in instalments, so as to increase the usage of smartphones on its network.
Customers are allowed to pay as low as Ksh.20 per day for more than nine months with a goal of switching about four million 2G and 3G phones to 4G networks.
The Free internet will be installed in business centers, rural areas and other public spaces, according to the 2022/2023 Kenya National Digital Masterplan.
The well-known City Market and Wakulima Market in Nairobi’s central business district already have access to free Wi-fi hotspots that were installed near the end of last year.
Last year in November, ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo said, “We are taking the Internet to the people. From here, we will be launching similar programs in other trade centres so that we can facilitate e-commerce.”
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He also disclosed talks with the World Bank to partially fund the rollout of the proposed 100,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable.
The Kenya Digital Acceleration project will improve Kenya’s digital transformation plan.
