The Government has allocated Sh12.3 billion to the Konza Technopolis project. This is one of the largest allocations since the project was mooted more than six years ago.
The allocation comes amid fear that the key Vision 2030 project has stalled, after falling behind construction deadlines and failing to meet the expected investors.
Of the funding, Sh7.2 billion will go towards the ongoing construction works while another Sh5.1 billion will go towards creating the Konza Data Centre and Smart City facilities.
Aside from this, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, while reading the Budget in Parliament yesterday, made additional budgetary allocations to the digital learning programme, a campaign platform of Jubilee Government during the 2013 elections.
“To support the ICT sector and take advantage of the digital dividend, and consolidate Kenya’s leading position in the technology space, I have allocated Sh3.2 billion for the Digital Literacy Programme,” said Rotich.
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The State has also set aside Sh2.9 billion for Government shared services with another Sh2.8 billion for expanding the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure Phase II (NOFBI) expansion and Sh1.1 billion for installation of an Internet-Based 4,000 network.
Parliament’s Budget and Appropriation Committee last week proposed slashing Sh1.2 billion from the digital literacy project, citing administrative shortcomings in the roll-out of the project. It also proposed reducing the allocation to the Ajira Fund by Sh800 million.
