Telecoms & IT

The telecoms sector continues to be a critical element of the economy, laying the groundwork for greater investment and performing well in terms of mobile money and ICT infrastructure growth. As smartphone penetration and 4G coverage increase, new regulations are lowering barriers for tech imports and facilitating the expansion of e-governance. The country saw mobile penetration at 83.9% as of June 2015. This followed healthy growth throughout 2014, with mobile phone penetration rising by 2.9% from January to March 2015. The government continues efforts to incorporate ICT into its service delivery, and is implementing the Connected Kenya 2017 master plan to guide the country’s ICT and broadband development. The plan aims to see the sector create up to 180,000 jobs and contribute up to 8% of the value of goods and services produced in the country.

This chapter contains a roundtable discussion with Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom; Adil El Youseffi, CEO, Airtel; Vincent Lobry; and CEO, Orange Telkom; as well as an interview with Jambu Palaniappan, Regional General Manager for Middle East and Africa, Uber.