President of Kenya – Uhuru Kenyatta, has made a 3-day trip to the UK. As expected, the meeting between the Country’s President and United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to mean more than just good news for Kenyans.
While in the UK, the President co-hosted the Global Education Summit with UK’s Prime Minister – Boris Johnson. This Summit had the aim of supporting Small and Medium-Scale Entreprises (SMEs), and investing about 20 billion KES into the Kenyan economy. The Head of State shared that the focus of a large part of this money for investment though, will be on hi tech-related projects.
The Tech-based investment has been broken down to accommodate different fields.
KES 2.7 billion will be used to invest in digital customs systems that could boost international trade. This fund will go a long way to accelerating the completion of the Integrated Customs Management Systems (iCMS) to speed up the transporting goods within and outside the country.
KES 4.2 billion will be invested in manufacturing.
KES 495 million will be assigned to Renewable Energy. This is to support UK-backed InfraCO Africa, who will expand off-grid solar power all through the Western Parts of Kenya.
KES 555 million has been set aside to support green transition including clean cooling and renewable energy .
KES 75 million will be allotted to green manufacturing to boost the system.
KES 675 million has been provided by UK firm ARC Ride to expand their Kenyan fleet of electric cars.
KES 135 million will also be used by InfraCo Africa Africa to invest in electric taxi service they named Nopea Ride. Just to note, Nopea Ride is the first electric taxi company to be introduced in the African continent, and their expanding fleet is in the country’s capital – Nairobi. This will at least create employment opportunities for more people in the transportation system in the country, with improved standard of living as they would get to earn more.
From a close observation, quite a huge chunk has been set aside for investing and expanding the scope of electric cars in Kenya. The country is indeed making giant strides in the field of technology.
