Thursday, January 24, 2013

Kenya developing $14.5bn Silicon City


Kenya may be considered as a backward country by many, but its leaders seem to have a vision for the future. Laced with the vision to make Kenya a highly tech advanced country, the Kenya's president has launched a $14.5bn (£9.1bn) project to build a new Silicon city intended to be an IT business hub and dubbed "Africa's Silicon Savannah".
Kenyan president laying the foundation stone of Silicon City - The Konza technology City

The Silicon City to be known as Konza Technology City is to be located some 60 kilometres away from the capital city Nairobi.

The 5,000-acre (2,011-hectare) site was a ranch to the south-east of Nairobi on the way to the port city of Mombasa.

The Konza Technology City is expected to generate more than 20,000 IT related jobs by 2015 - which will be multiplied ten times to 200,000 jobs in next fifteen years period in 2030.

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Artist's view of the Konza Technology City

"It is expected to spur massive trade and investment as well as create thousands of employment opportunities for young Kenyans in the ICT [information communications technology] sector," President Mwai Kibaki said at the ceremony to launch the construction, adding it would be a "game-changer" for the country's development.

The government has appointed the Konza Technopolis Development Authority to oversee the building of the IT hub, which will be built in four phases - starting with the technology centres first.

Read more about it at: BBC Africa
Photos: Screen shots from BBC

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