By Sharon Kiraithe and Valentine Gesare.
Nairobi, March 18, 2019
The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) in collaboration with the Ministry of ICT hosted a CEO’s breakfast Forum at a Nairobi hotel today. The interactive forum dubbed “Driving business services optimization through digitally empowered services” was a platform to discuss available opportunities to outsource, appreciate the benefit and provide opportunity to some of the youths who have been successful in providing these services to international companies.
The panelists included Cabinet Secretary for ICT, Joe Mucheru who noted that it is important to create awareness to the public about the availability of opportunities and digital jobs that come along with technology. He also added that the Government has developed a curriculum for training young people outsourcing opportunities and also the need for right policy for data protection and privacy.
The CS noted that it is important to create awareness on digital jobs and the available opportunities presented by technology. He also said that the government is putting in place the right policies to ensure that there data protection and privacy for the citizens, citing the Data Protection and Privacy Bill currently before Parliament.
The Ministry of ICT in collaboration with KEPSA seeks to bridge the information gap that exists between companies and freelancers. In that respect, young people do not know how to access those companies and the companies have no idea which platforms are appropriate to place the jobs.
The Ajira Digital Project seeks to position Kenya as a choice of labor destination for multinational companies as well as encourage local companies and the public sector to create digital work. The overall objective of the project is to make Kenya a freelance hub and the global destination for online work by the year 2022.
Kenya has been ranked position 10 most performing in terms of online work uptake.
Also in attendance was the Principal Secretary for Department of ICT Mr. Jerome Ochieng.