Opinion: Efforts to empower creative sector welcome

Studio Mashinani project launched PHOTO:COURTESY

The launch of Studio Mashinani last week by ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru is a major step towards unlocking the creative potential of the youthful Kenyan populace.

Many a youth had to travel long distances from the countryside to seek recording and production facilities in Nairobi. This, of course, not only made it expensive but also had the struggling unemployed youth giving up altogether in the absence of a benefactor to sponsor the long sojourn to the city.

But with two studios in Kisumu and one each in Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa and Eldoret, the Government has taken the right steps and it can only get better with these studios being set up in all the 47 counties.

According to Mr Mucheru, the growth of IT will facilitate Government focus on alternative and innovative ways of creating jobs for the youth, considering that only 70,000 out of the 800,000 young people who enter the job market annually succeed in securing professional employment in the formal sector. Yet these are prospects possible today because of the heavy investment the Government has put in the ICT sector, especially internet penetration.

Today there are over 30 million internet users, up from about 12 million in 2013, according to online statistics.

In 2015, the International Telecommunications Union awarded President Uhuru Kenyatta a prestigious recognition award for promoting the use of ICT for sustainable development during a ceremony at the United Nations headquarters.

The positive environment has brought the concept of Kenya as an African Silicon Savannah to reality with Disrupt Africa, a website which monitors Africa’s start-up infrastructure, demonstrating that Kenya’s technology start-ups chalked more than Sh4.7 billion in funding from several investment calls.

Pundits observe that Kenya’s ICT innovation sector is not only for entrepreneurs, it has also been integral in moving Kenyans forward together.

This is manifest in the digitisation of service delivery across various platforms, which include online Government services, the introduction of digital Signal TVs, up-scaling of utility billing that is accessible on mobile phones and the e-citizen platforms.

Additionally, the 2015 Kenya Economic Survey reveals that the ICT sector in Kenya was worth Sh138 billion in 2014.

The good story on ICT development in Kenya may be attributed to a number of factors, including the zero-rating of many ICT equipment imported to the land.

This has in turn spurred the impressive expansion of the nation’s gross domestic product, which stands at 5.9 per cent.

And with a stable economic environment, ICT growth is set to take the country to the magical 10 per cent growth rate necessary for take-off.

Communications Authority of Kenya statistics report there has been an increase of almost 20 per cent in terrestrial wireless data subscriptions since the same period last year.

The statistics also show an extremely impressive rise of 113 per cent in satellite data subscriptions over the same period.

These developments are music to the growth of the entertainment industry with most ticketing going online and sale of Kenyan music and production going digital to capture the global market.

There is no going back and the creative economy can only grow from the current 5 per cent of the GDP, according to the World International Property Organisation (WIPO).

What the Government needs to do now is move fast and establish, alongside Studio Mashinani, Kenya Cultural Centres modelled around the Kenya National Theatre.

This would be a great move after President Uhuru Kenyatta helped renovate Kenya National Theatre to the tune of Sh100 million and to reclaim its hitherto grabbed expansion land.