The Lake Region Economic Bloc & Safaricom Work Together to Speed Up Digital Transformation
- A range of ICT, Financial Services, and Infrastructure components will assist 14 counties in the lake region reach their full economic potential.
- Safaricom has partnered with the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) to carry out several projects targeted at speeding the region’s adoption of technology as part of its continuous efforts to foster digital transformation at the county level.
Through Safaricom’s Social Good Investments in LREB counties, the projects that will be implemented under myCounty App will include digitizing the counties, enabling solutions, providing secured technology, and altering lives.
Safaricom will specifically provide connectivity for county sites, bridge the citizen digital divide, actualize the digital superhighway through fiber connectivity, revenue, and healthcare management, public Wi-Fi, subsidy/vouchers for services, secure employee communication, safeguard citizen data, and provide cyber security to the 14 counties in the LREB region.
“Without the deliberate and strategic partnership with both the county and national governments, we will not be able to fulfill our objective of being a purpose-led technology firm by 2025. This collaboration with the LREB demonstrates our clear determination to collaborate with county governments to digitize devolution,” stated Lucille Aveva, Director, Customer Obsession at Safaricom.
Makueni County has already accepted the myCounty App, while Elgeyo Marakwet and Nairobi counties have inked agreements with Safaricom to incorporate the App.
MyCounty App is a digital platform that will allow all 47 counties to digitize their services and operations via a single citizen access channel.
The platform would improve public access to county services such as parking payment and single business permits, among other things.
“LREB welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with Safaricom to bring technology solutions closer to home.” Technology is still playing an important role in developing a functional decentralized government. “We are hopeful that our people will soon begin to reap the benefits of this agreement and unlock our counties’ economic potential,” stated Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o, Chair of the LREB and Governor of Kisumu County.
Bomet, Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Kericho, Kisii, Kisumu, Migori Nandi, Nyamira, Siaya, Trans Nzoia, and Vihiga are among the 14 counties that make up the Lake Region bloc.
With 14.9 million people, the Lake Region is one of Kenya’s most densely inhabited regions, accounting for around 31.4 percent of the country’s population.
