The digital and the creative economy was among the gainers in the 2023/24 budget.
While presenting the 2023/24 budget, National Treasury CS Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u said the digital super highway will play a critical role in enabling the government realize its objectives of the bottom up economic transformation agenda as well as enhancing revenue collection via automation of VAT systems.
“Digitization and automation will increase productivity and competitiveness through providing quick access to the market and reducing information asymmetry as well as improving risk management.” Noted Professor Njuguna.
He said promotion of music theaters, graphic design, digital animation, fashion and crafts among others will increase employment for the youth.
The Cabinet Secretary announced that 15.1 billion shillings will be set aside to fund initiatives in the ICT sector. The amount will include 600 million shillings for the government shared services meant to fast track the development of the Konza technopolis city.
A further 4.8 billion shillings will cater for the horizontal infrastructure phase 1, 1.2 billion shillings for Konza data center and smart city facilities and 475 million for the construction of the Konza complex phase 1B.
Other proposed allocations include 5.7 billion shillings for the construction of the Kenya advanced institute of science and technology at Konza technopolis and 1.3 billion shillings for maintenance and rehabilitation of the national optic fiber backbone phase 2 expansion.
According to the treasury CS, implementation of these interventions is expected to stimulate economic recovery while at the same time secure sustainable and inclusive growth amid emerging challenges as well as improve the quality of growth from the public sector investment led growth to a dynamic private sector led growth.
