Mark Reynolds, Commercial Business Executive – Sub Saharan Africa at VMware, talks to Intelligent CIO Africa about Information Technology in Kenya.
1. What is the IT infrastructure currently like in Kenya?
Amongst the best in Africa. There is fibre connectivity to each county and the government has recognised IT as a key investment industry.
2. How are organisations embracing Digital Transformation and what are the challenges that come with it?
They are not quite open to it, but most organisations have acknowledged that they need to embrace the challenge and seek ways to transform the way they do business, engage customers and clients and ensure the capability of their back-end infrastructure.
3. Are many Kenyan organisations adopting the cloud?
Not yet, although its changing with a few trailblazers setting the path. Local telco and independent providers are better received than the “big global players”.
4. What is connectivity like in Kenya? Is there demand for 4G, or 5G technology?
There is great connectivity. All service providers are on 4G with mobile data usage continually increasing. The demand for 5G is yet not measured but the larger telcos are already investigating IoT agreements and strategies to drive adoption once their 5G network is available for consumption.
5. What work have you been doing in the country and can you explain any projects you have recently undertaken?
VMware has been working with a lot many organisations in all verticals. One of the keys initiatives to have a major impact on how Kenyans interact with government services is through our partnership with Huduma Kenya – more information here – https://www.vmware.com/radius/impact/huduma-kenya-digital-transformation-social-good/
6. What do you think are the big tech trends in 2019 and can you refer specifically to trends in Kenya?
Blockchain is one – especially with a major government task force setup to look at adoption to solve some of the perennial issues, e.g. land ownership registry. Fintech is another with major players receiving significant investor funding to expand their operations.
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