The Kenyan government first announced plans for building the Konza Techno City in 2008. The technology city is part of Kenya’s Vision 2030 to capture the growing global business processing, outsourcing, and information technology-enabled services. Konza Data Center and Smart City is part of the Konza Techno City Project. The first phase is estimated to create over 17000 jobs and contribute about Shs 90 billion to the economy of Kenya.
The project, which was supposed to be completed a decade after, has been assigned the sum of Sh 67.5 billion through concessional financing and Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The deal was signed by President Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya) and President Xi Jinping (China). Sh 50 billion out of the total sum will account for the Kenzo Techno City expressway construction, while the remaining Sh 17.5 billion will go to the data centre and smart cities project.
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The Chinese telecommunications giant company, Huawei provided the huge sum of money (equivalent to $173 billion) for smart cities and the construction of the link road from Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to James Gichuru expressway. The China Road and Bridge Corporation will execute the project for SH 50 billion.
The data centre and smart-city project were proposed by the ICT ministry and Huawei in 2017, to be part of the Konza Techno City. It includes the construction of a National Cloud Data Center, Smart ICT Network, Public Safe City & Smart Traffic Solution and a Government Cloud/Enterprise Service. Konza Techno Center is located an hour away from Nairobi.
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