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The government is targeting to review the rollout of the public Wi-Fi hotspots across the country and introduce charges for users in a bid to ensure the infrastructure is sustainable in the long run.
Information, Communications and the Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo says while the government has managed to establish more than 3000 hotspots across the country some are not functional due to maintenance lapses.
“We need 25,000 public WiFi hotspots. We are at about 3,000 that are working others are not working because the project the way it was designed left the sustainability component part of it,” said Kabogo.
Kabogo said the ministry is now working on new ways to ensure the public wifi hotspots are self-sustaining.
“If you have 20-30 people paying Ksh 5 then that young person has a job and we will be able to monitor them from ICT Authority that the wifi is working,” he stated.
Additionally, the ministry is also seeking to bring on board the private sector to fast track the rollout of 100,000km of fibre optic cable.
According to Kabogo, the deployment of the infrastructure is facing delays due to bureaucracy and cost of deploying the infrastructure.
“We are talking about putting up 100,000km of fibre, we are at 15,000km. The cost of that infrastructure is so huge that not many countries will be able to do that. We are pushing this with Public Private Partnership approach so that people can come and invest in this space,” added Kabogo.
He further stated that the government is on track to establish 1,450 constituency hubs across the country by 2027 through established linkage with the Constituency Development Fund.