Matiang'i urges governors to bridge ICT skills gap, create jobs

County Governors have been urged to begin digital talent programmes and recruit at least a hundred fresh graduates in each county in a bid to increase youth capacity in ICT skills.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on Thursday said that Kenya is facing a challenge in the sector and that all government agencies should work to breach the gap so as to achieve vision 2030.

Mr Matiang’i said that the ICT Authority is ready to back up the programmes if initiated by governors and boost the number to more than 5,200 in the next three years.

“Governors have been complaining that they lack capacity to implement the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). I encourage them to set aside 10 per cent of the hefty allowances going to the Members of County Assemblies and invest in brain trust of our youth,” he said.

“In the next two weeks we are going to advertise for 400 youth to join the presidential digital talent programmes and add the number to 500 youth equipped in ICT skills to help in the digital transition,” he added.

The CS was speaking in Nairobi during a send-off for 10 engineering students from various local universities to China through the Huawei Seeds for the Future programme.

He urged the students to promote patriotism during their two-month stay in China.

Technical institutions

Mr Matiang’i said that the Land Ministry is training an army of mid-level skilled manpower to help in the construction of technical institutions in all the counties.

“We are involved in more discussions with the private sector like Huawei to enable us offer these skills to our trust brain resources (youth). In three years we hope to see a difference in service delivery. Let us put our money where our mouth is,” said Mr Matiang’i.