NAIROBI, Kenya- In an exciting move towards digitizing Kenya, First Lady Rachael Ruto has inaugurated the Jitume Digital Hub at Butere Girls National School in Kakamega County.
Emphasizing the need to arm students with essential computer skills, the First Lady highlighted the initiative’s role in preparing young Kenyans for the digital job market.
Addressing the students and teachers, she commended the efforts of Eliud Owalo, Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy, in implementing the Jitume Digital Hub.
She asserted that the government’s comprehensive digital plan aims to create a plethora of job opportunities across the nation.
“The full implementation of the government’s digital plan will eventually spur a wave of jobs across the country,” she remarked.
The First Lady encouraged students to be diligent in their studies, particularly those focusing on STEM subjects, which are crucial in the digital age.
Expanding Digital Infrastructure Nationwide
Eliud Owalo, who also spoke at the launch, shared the government’s ambitious blueprint to connect all 1,450 wards in Kenya to the internet.
This initiative, he explained, is part of the broader agenda to provide more opportunities for the youth by enabling them to work remotely for international clients.
Owalo noted that over 400,000 youths have already been trained, and more than 139,000 digital jobs have been created in the past year.
He also mentioned that the government has laid 100,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables across the country, ensuring seamless internet access and increasing the number of e-citizen services from 350 to over 16,000.
Transformative Impact of the Jitume Digital Hub
The Jitume Digital Hub project, spearheaded by Konza Technopolis, is now fully operational and has connected over 28,000 users.
It offers more than 8,700 courses and links users to 118 digital job platforms, making it a cornerstone of Kenya’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
The First Lady praised the Jitume Project as a transformational initiative with the potential to address Kenya’s perennial unemployment issue.
