INNOVATION
More Investment In
Technology Will Be
Kenya’s Saving Grace
By Eugene Wanekeya
A
ccording to data from the Central
Bank of Kenya (CBK), mobile
money transactions in 2018 stood
at a whooping KES3.9 trillion. To put
this into perspective, this translates to an
average of KES10.9 billion mobile cash
transactions per day. This is an interesting
statistic to note because in the same year,
the Government of Kenya had a Budget
of KES3 trillion which it was not in a
position to fully finance hence had to
resort to taking in debt.
This article is however not about out
national debt but rather about investment
in technological innovation as an avenue to
inject more wealth into Kenya’s economy.
Just in case you haven’t caught up yet, I
deliberately made the comparison between
the colossal sums of money transacted
courtesy of mobile money technology in
2018 vis-à-vis Kenya’s Budget in 2018
to demonstrate the opportunities that lie
herein and create a clear picture of how
technology can impact an economy.
Whereas the KES3.9 trillion was not
actual revenue from mobile money
technology, when you factor in mobile
money transfer charges, the number of
agents operating mobile money shops, the
number of businesses conducting their
operations through mobile money and the
amount of taxes collected, you realize this
actually translates to more money in the
coffers of Government, business entities
as well as in the pockets of individual
citizens and this is therefore a boost to the
overall economy.
Now picture this, what if we as a country
invested more in technological innovations
12
MAL29/19 ISSUE
of the caliber of mobile money transfer?
Tech companies are
dominating
Well, numbers don’t lie. Based on the 2018
report by Forbes on the World's Most
Valuable Brands, 11 out of the top 20 of
these brands are technology companies.
As a matter of fact, the first five positions
are occupied by tech companies. That’s
not the interesting bit though. When you
look at these 11 tech companies in terms
of their brand value, combined, they are
worth $805 Billion (KES 80.5 Trillion).
Just think for a minute of how much
value such resources can add to Kenya’s
economy. Whereas there’s no doubt
that it has taken these companies years
of consistency in innovation and good
business management to get to this level,
this just goes to show how investing in
innovative technology can bring great
returns.
You may be tempted to think that we
are just Kenya, where will we get the
technological knowhow to develop
technological solutions of such high
standards. The answer is simple, the
most innovative mobile money transfer
platform currently in the world was
developed in Kenya by Kenyans and now
this technology is being adopted all over
the world including in some of the most
developed economies.
There are of course many other notable
tech innovations that have been developed
in the country though they haven’t come
close to the standard of mobile money
simply because they target niche markets
therefore don’t address a common societal
need.
This is about to change though because
Kenyan companies have stepped up their
innovation game in 2019. Case in point,
Atlancis Technologies, a Kenyan ICT
company is scheduled to launch Africa’s
first Cloud this year. This is huge for Kenya
and the African continent as a whole
because currently, all the cloud computing
technology that is used in the continent
has been imported from abroad. For the
very first time, the continent is going to
have a Cloud, developed in Africa by
Africans and hosted in Africa. This is
indeed a very exciting time for African
technology.
What’s important to reiterate today is that
investment in technology is the future of
business and growth of Kenya’s economy
and there are proven models that we can
learn from. As long as we can focus our
investment in innovation that solves mass
problems not only within our borders but
also without, we can be able to further
cement our position as a technology hub
and contribute better returns to our young
economy.
Eugene Wanekeya is the Head of PR
and Communications at ATLANCIS
Technologies, an Innovative IT
Solutions provider transforming the
ICT landscape in Africa. To interact
with and get to know more about this
trend spotter, you can reach him via
mail at: [email protected]