The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, Mr. Eliud Owalo has said that the government has set up 274 digital hubs across the country to train youths in digital skills.
He noted that the training of youths in digital skills will enable them to access job opportunities through the Internet so that they can earn an income for their daily needs.
The CS was speaking at Bungoma North Technical and Vocational Training College at Naitiri in Bungoma County during the launch of a digital laboratory at the institution.
Mr. Owalo said that the digital hubs were a convenient way of working, saying it will enable the youths to access the jobs and also be able to work for companies across the world from home.
He said that the government was targeting to roll out 100,000 km of fiber across the country saying so far 8,500km had been done and that the concerned department had hired contractors to ensure this was done.
The CS said that the government was targeting connecting 25,000 WI-FI hot spots in markets across the country where traders are involved in various trade activities to enable them to engage in trade through the internet.
“The world of today does not necessitate that the seller of a commodity must have a physical interface with the buyer of a commodity”, he said.
He said that all government services in government will be available on the E-Citizen platform saying so far 12,641 of these services were now on this platform. Moving forward you will not have to visit government offices to get the services”, he said.
This he said was one way of enhancing efficiency and service delivery in government offices and to remove bottlenecks that have been put on citizens when seeking government services.
He said this would go a long way in removing brokers in government service and fighting cases of bribery for residents when seeking the services.
The CS was accompanied by the Principal Secretary in the State Department for Broadcasting and Telecommunication, Prof. Edward Kisiang’ani and the Principal Secretary for ICT, Eng. John Tanui, the Deputy Governor of Bungoma County Janepher Mbatiany.
He launched a digital hub at Bungoma Bus Park and Bungoma National Polytechnic at Sanga’lo.
By Catherine Nyongesa
