The Kenya ICT Board Connected Government Summit has kicked off at the Coastal town of Mombasa with participants calling to partnership, commitment and planning in moving Government into shared services model.  This is the second Government Connected Summit organized by the Board bringing together more than 140 participants from the public and private sectors.While addressing the participants, Hon Samuel Pogishio, Minister for Information and Communication said that the country has made tremendous strides in the adoption of technologies. The landing of the optical fiber cables at the coast of Mombasa has created the much-needed infrastructure to propel the country to the next level of development. “Infrastructure is key in harnessing the benefits f ICT and we need more investment especially from the private sector to get infrastructure to all regions of the country,” Pogishio said.

While addressing the same gathering, Michael Joseph, the CEO of Safaricom who are the main sponsors of the event said his company is investing in helping the government bring ICT to the people. “As the country’s largest ICT company we realize that we have a mandate to ensure that people have affordable access to ICT infrastructure. In that way, we are rolling out our 3G network to all regions of the country as well as working with government in establishing Digital Villages.

Joseph also announced that Safaricom will be rolling out the next generation network – 4G before the end of the year. “We know that people say its too early for African countries to roll out 4G as yet, but we believe that the Kenyan market is ready for 4G uptake,” Joseph said.

Others who spoke at the opening included the CEO of the Kenya ICT Board, Paul Kukubo and the Chair of the Board, Catherine Ngahu.