NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 23 – The Government has committed to addressing device affordability challenges and implementing key recommendations from the newly launched ‘Digital Economy Report’ to foster growth in the ICT sector.
Speaking during the report’s launch, ICT and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Margaret Nyambura Ndung’u emphasized the importance of enabling government policies to drive growth in key sectors, including agriculture.
CS Ndung’u highlighted that Kenya’s digital transformation agenda still heavily depends on the mobile industry to digitize the economy.
She pledged the Ministry’s commitment to reviewing and implementing the policy recommendations, which aim to boost ICT service penetration and create new business opportunities.
The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) report revealed that increased digitization across sectors such as agriculture, industry, transport, trade, and healthcare could significantly boost Kenya’s GDP.
Key policy recommendations include lowering sector-specific taxes, improving device affordability, and creating a regulatory framework that attracts investment.
The report pointed out that reducing taxes on mobile and mobile money services could increase access and productivity, ultimately leading to higher tax revenues.
However, barriers such as device affordability and lack of digital skills continue to hinder the rapid adoption of mobile internet in Kenya, where only 35 percent of the population uses mobile internet.
Lydia Sietenei, legal advisor at the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), emphasized that overcoming the dual challenges of device affordability and insufficient digital skills is crucial to achieving the country’s digital aspirations.
According to CA data, as of June 2024, Kenya had 68.9 million mobile subscribers, a mobile penetration rate of 133.7 percent.
Meanwhile, there were 66.1 million connected mobile devices, with smartphones accounting for 68.3 percent of those connections.
Mobile broadband subscriptions reached 38.4 million compared to 1.5 million fixed data subscriptions.
