The construction of National Data Centres (NDC) will not start mid-this year as earlier planned. This follows the delay in passing the Private Public Partnerships bill that is scheduled to be tabled in parliament by May this year.
The three proposed data centers to be established under public private partnerships is estimated to cost between Sh17 billion and Sh21 billion. The centre will be used for the storage of government documents that are being digitalized. This follows the government’s plans to start offering its services online, a move expected to improve governments’ service delivery and help in fighting corruption. It will also help in cutting operational cost of the different ministries and agencies.
According to the PS Ministry of Information, Bitange Ndemo offering services online will boost the economy by streamlining cumbersome processes and simplify reporting requirements.
Kenya has been in the shift to e-governance since July last year when it launched an open government data portal under the Kenya Open Data Initiative. This made it the first of the developing countries to launch such a portal that allows for citizens to access over 390 datasets even as over 100 more datasets are set to be added to the site.
The Ministry of Lands plans to digitalize all land documents at an estimated cost of Sh1billion.The revenue then expected to move from Sh7 billion to almost Sh40 billion.
With open data, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector is expected to increase its contribution to the gross domestic product to 15.The new digital platforms will also to change the dynamic between citizens and their governments.
The move to e-procurement is expected to save the government $1 billion annually.
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