Belgium gives Sh1.4 billion for connecting counties

By LILLIAN KIARIE

County Government offices and State institutions will soon benefit from high-speed Internet connectivity.  This follows a 12 million Euro (Sh1.39 billion) grant by the Belgium Government to the ICT Ministry.

The funding will support Phase II of the last mile connectivity project by connecting 19 counties through a high capacity network. The service provides voice, data and video capability that connects State offices in a secure manner. Information, Communication & Technology Principal Secretary Joseph Tiampati, said the link will ease communication among Government officers as well as support the realisation of Vision 2030.

“This initiative is a major milestone towards the achievement of the development of national broadband connectivity infrastructure in the country,” he said. Tiampati observed that in the first phase, 28 counties were connected to Internet services.

Once completed, the project will ease delivery of citizen services such as issuing of birth certificates, national identity cards and integrated financial management information system. The connectivity will lead to efficiency, reduce operations costs as well as enhance transparency in counties.

Tiampati said the programme uses a ‘one-stop-shop’ approach to provide customer service to citizens from a single online location dubbed the e-huduma web portal.

 The portal provides integrated services offered by various government ministries, departments and agencies to facilitate ease of payment for government services.  The County Connectivity Project (CCP) allows for State sites in the counties to connect to the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure. This allows interconnection from any site in Nairobi to any area in the country. The CCP is a video conferencing application that allows institutions to communicate with each other through live video images.

 This comes a few days after the Government received a Sh3.1 billion concessional loan from the Belgium Government for rural electrification in the greater Nyanza region.

Reportedly, some of the money will be used for electricity distribution infrastructure in Sondu, Homa Bay and Kisii regions.