Grants to Government ministries and agencies involved in ICT projects leapt up, encouraging players in the sector who have been pushing for more funds. The Ministry of Information and Communications, the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Resource Survey and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) and the e-Government directorate got a lion’s share of the funds.
They are bodies that an ICT Sector Working Group said, in an earlier report, that they needed more funds. While Mr Kimunya did not give out the Sh7.5 billion that the ICT group had requested, each got a bigger increase over last year’s funding levels. The biggest beneficiary was the Information Ministry, which got Sh3.1 billion for development.
The figure was a big increase over the Sh330 million in development money allocated to the ministry in the 2006/2007 fiscal year.
Other groups that benefited from increased funding include the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, which got Sh20 million.
It is less than half the Sh45.5 million that had been requested to support a maps digitising project and preparations for the 2009 census, but an increase over the zero sum the bureau got for development last year.
The statistics office’s director, Mr Antony Kilele, said digitising maps would save the department time and money as staffers would no longer have to draw maps freehand.
The e-Government directorate was allocated Sh63 million in development, up from Sh50 million last year, but well under the Sh540 million the ICT group had suggested. The directorate is meant to provide Government services online, such as birth certificates, driving licences and Kenya Revenue Authority returns.
The sector’s ICT secretary, Mr Juma Okech, said the funds would be used to build a data recovery centre for public information. Currently, he said, most ministries back up data on floppy disks or other non-secure means, adding that a data centre would enable smaller ministries to share in a centralised safety structure.
Contributing two per cent to the economic production of the country in 2005, and growing quickly, ICT has been marked as having “a catalytic effect to the growth of other sectors,” according to the report.
Some successes achieved in the Government include mainstreaming ICT within ministries and modernising equipment at the National Registration Office, which issues National Identity Cards.
The office can now print 30,000 copies of identity cards, up from 5,000, with new fingerprint matching equipment.
Next, said Mr Okech, is a planned project that will enable ID applicants to check the status of their applications online. Mr Okech said the ICT sector requires more money to complete planned projects.
Government ICT projects have previously failed due to shortage of funding, including fibre optic networking to connect ministries, which had been planned for last year.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Okuttah Mark
Quelle/Source: Business Daily Africa, 18.06.2007
