NAIROBI: The Kenyan government is reportedly working towards securing a tax incentive for local device assembly plants, in an effort to boost local production of equipment and electronics with the country.
As the government is trying to put an emphasis on building local capacity in assembling end user devices as already seen with the Taifa laptops from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Recently, BRCK and Kenyatta University said they will launch education tablets for its students and other schools countrywide as well as develop content for both students and teachers.
“We are looking at working with public institutions that can create local assembly lines. In addition, we are pursuing tax incentives for those who will set up local device assembly in Kenya,” said Matiang’i.
The government also firmly believes in the country’s capacity to harness the vast knowledge in ICT and manufacturing to develop highly competitive products in the global market.
Apart from giving incentives to local assembly lines, the gov’t aim to leverage partnerships with the private sector for education content development to help achieve its Digital Literacy Programme.
In preparation of the school laptop project, the ICT ministry has also released a list of 11,744 schools connected to power for the Pilot programme and is now working on a manual with model classroom and desk specifications for this schools. Branded as the DigiSchool, from digital and school, the Digital Literacy Programme is expected to be a universal brand for Kenyan education.
