Huawei has provided funds about $173 million for the building of a data center at Kenya’s Konza Technology City, which is about an hour’s drive from the capital city of Nairobi.
The funding was announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya during his visit to China. In total, Kenya received funding of $666 million from China and this also includes the building of a highway.
A statement from Kenya’s Office of the President reads, “President Uhuru Kenyatta today witnessed the signing of two project delivery agreements totaling to Sh 67.5 billion through concessional financing and Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The projects include the Konza Data Centre and Smart Cities Project to be undertaken by Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei at a cost of Shs 17.5 billion and the construction of the Nairobi JKIA to James Gichuru expressway on a PPP arrangement by the China Road and Bridge Corporation for Shs 50 billion. The JKIA to James Gichuru expressway is a privately initiated project by a private Chinese company and is off the Government’s balance sheet. It will be the first of the new toll roads in Nairobi.”
According to iAfrikan, Kenya’s government first announced its plans for building and developing Konza Techno City in 2008. Since then, many have criticized how the project to build a technology city, initially whose purpose was to “capture the growing global Business Processing Outsourcing and Information Technology Enabled Services (BPO/ITES) sectors in Kenya”, failed. With Konza being part of what is termed Vision 2030, it is only now in 2019 that some real funding and developing regarding the project. At the end of 2018, which Kenya’s government promised the city’s headquarters building would be complete, all that was visible as a sign of progress was an incomplete 8 storey building.
The statement further reads, “The Konza Data Centre and Smart City Facilities Project was conceived in 2017 by the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology and Huawei, and entails the development of core ICT infrastructure which includes National Cloud Data Centre, Smart ICT Network, Public Safe City and Smart Traffic Solution, and Government Cloud and Enterprise Service. Konza Data Centre and Smart City Facilities Project is part of the Konza Techno City, a Vision 2030 flagship project started in 2008 and is aimed at developing technology-intensive and high-tech industries in ICT, biotechnology and e-commerce. Phase I of the project is estimated to create over 17,000 jobs and contribute an estimated Shs 90 billion to the Kenyan economy.”
