World-class connectivity
The 2017 Akamai’s State of the Internet Connectivity Report stresses that, with a speed of 15 Mbps, Kenyans benefit from one of the highest connection speed in the world. Kenya is globally ranked 23, that is ahead of Israel, Qatar and South Africa.
Such a high connection speed, largely due to the presence of three undersea fibre-optic cables (Seacom, TEAM System and EASSY), greatly facilitates the development of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.
On top of that, investors in the ICT sector enjoy non-fiscal and fiscal incentives.
Kenya is part of the global digital revolution
Every day, Kenyans use digital technologies
Source: Central Bank of Kenya. Unit: million
Opportunities
There are vast opportunities for expansion of the ICT industry, especially in the following sectors
| Business opportunities | Government contracts | Retail sector | ICT Parks | Regional market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provision of hard (network upgrading, provision of communication equipments, data centres, disaster recovery centres etc) and soft infrastructures | Provision of hard and soft infrastructures (rolling out of E-government services) | Kenya’s middle class represents almost 20% of the population, hence a big market for e-commerce. A number of Western Internet companies already operate in Kenya (Microsoft, Uber, Google, etc). | There are immense opportunities in building and operating Multimedia Technology Parks, Business Process Outsourcing Parks and IT-Enabled Services Parks | Given its comparative advantage, the Kenyan IT sector is expected to expand into the region, especially due to the availability of regional agreements |