Kenya to boost digital economy with extra 100,000km Internet cable
The government has embarked on another ambitious plan to deploy an additional 100,000km of the national fibre optic network over the next five years which promises to bolster the country’s digital economy through increased broadband availability.
President William Ruto unleashed the agenda to scale up the country’s last mile network infrastructure during Mashujaa Day celebrations.
The new infrastructure will offer additional broadband to the national fibre backbone network amid uncertainty surrounding its maintenance.
Upon its implementation, more Kenyans and businesses will have access to an improved internet speeds, lower latency and broader bandwidth that is posed to give Kenya a competitive edge in the global digital economy.
Ruto said to achieve these purposes, the government is committed to invest in the digital superhighway and the creative economy, which will be enablers of transformation, productivity and overall competitiveness.
“Over the next five years, the government will ensure universal broadband availability through the roll-out of connectivity throughout the country,” he added.
Scaling up of network capacity could help Ruto’s new administration bridge the digital inequity and exclusion. Digital inequity has always been identified as some of the factors slowing down the country’s creativity and innovation, especially among the youths.
The fresh plan comes at a time when the country’s internet economy is rapidly growing, thanks to the high digital transformation accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Online businesses
The Covid-triggered increase in remote working, cloud storage demand, online businesses, fintech innovation, and video streaming means that there will be more demand for reliable, affordable and quality internet.
Kenya’s internet quality still falls below the global average despite being the most expensive in East Africa. There is optimism that the digital infrastructure scale up could create more flexible and stable digital connection options.
A number of undersea fibre optic cables have been landing in the country with the latest being witnessed last March where 15,000 km cable connecting Africa, Europe and Asia landed in Mombasa.
Ruto’s plan to ride on this cable connection initiative could, however, face implementation headache due to budget shortfall that has left the government incapable of operating the National Optic Fibre Backbone Initiative (Nofbi).
