The Kenya ICT Board is ready to provide loans under the Kenya Transparency and Communication Infrastructure Project (KTCIP), a 7.8 billion shilling (US$116 million) joint initiative by the Kenyan government and the World Bank.
Loans will be handled by a consultant institution, said Victor Kyalo, deputy CEO of the board. The board was formed last year to develop and promote competitive ICT industries in Kenya.
“We are looking at contracting a qualified institution to handle our soft loan component,” Kyalo said. “The institution will provide the channel and mechanism for disbursement as well as recovery process.”
Kyalo said that the board will engage an institution capable of assessing applicants’ loan repayment ability and handling all loan processing. The institution will be responsible for supplying microcredits to customers from the board’s Revolving Fund. The consulting institution also will be expected to remit repayments directly to the board’s account.
The goal of the loan is to boost ICT connectivity in the country, improve the government’s delivery of services to citizens and its ability to ensure transparency and support anticorruption efforts.
KTCIP has four main components. The first one — infrastructure development — has been allocated 2.2 billion shillings. This is aimed at the development, expansion and improvement of ICT infrastructure in the country. It will directly support the establishment, management and use of digital villages (670 million shillings); provision of technical ICT assistance to the government (536 million shillings); establish a network operations center to manage intragovernment communication networks (536 million shillings); build government ICT capacity (268 million shillings) and purchase software licenses for the government’s ICT systems (268 million shillings).
The second component is ICT connectivity, targeting universities, technical colleges, the business process outsourcing sector as well as government offices and facilities.
The third component aims to support e-government services and other social institutions. Funds will be used to boost the broadband capacity of government ministries, universities and technical colleges and other related social institutions. The money will also support the establishment of seamless, effective and affordable inter-university connectivity.
The fourth component will be project management, monitoring and evaluation. A small amount of the total figure will go towards this exercise.
KTCIP is part of the World Bank-financed Regional Communications Infrastructure Program designed to improve connectivity of East and Southern Africa. The project was approved by the board of World Bank in April last year.
