In Kenya, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have emerged as a significant driver for economic development and job creation. In response, the government is intensifying its efforts to forge partnerships and launch initiatives that aim to bolster the nation's digital capabilities.

On Thursday, March 28, Eliud Owalo, Kenya’s Minister of ICT and the Digital Economy, and Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, the United Arab Emirates’ Minister of Investment, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster investment cooperation in digitization and technology between their respective countries.

As part of this partnership, the United Arab Emirates has pledged significant investments in Kenya’s ICT sector, with a particular focus on data center infrastructure capable of serving millions of users, as well as artificial intelligence and large language models.

This initiative is a component of Kenya’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation (BETA) program, which seeks to guide Kenya towards a brighter, more interconnected, and digitally empowered future. This comes shortly after a similar agreement was signed between Kenyan company EcoCloud and UAE-based G42 to establish Kenya’s first geothermal-powered data center.

These data center investments bolster Kenya’s ambition to become a preferred destination for data center providers, in light of the increasing global demand for cloud services. A report by Research and Markets predicts that the local data center market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.22% between 2023 and 2028.

This new collaboration is anticipated to narrow the digital divide in the country, spur technological innovation, and cultivate the emergence of a digital economy. It is also expected to create new job opportunities and provide Kenyan citizens access to the latest digital tools.

Samira Njoya