Varsities to supply Uhuru’s Sh17bn school laptops

Corporate News

Children use laptops. All the 22,000 public primary schools must be equipped with the devices in 18 months according to the new plan. PHOTO | FILE 

By OKUTTAH MARK, mokuttah@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• The Ministry of Industrialisation and Enterprise Development has been tasked with ensuring local assembly of the devices.
• The cost of the first phase of the project is estimated at Sh17 billion and will deliver 1.2 million devices in the next two years to cover all public primary schools.
• The pilot phase of 150 schools is planned for September.

Local universities have been tipped to supply the Sh17 billion primary school computers, as the Jubilee government changed execution of its digital plans from supplying laptops to every Class One pupil to building laboratories.  

Information minister Fred Matiang’i on Monday announced that the Ministry of Industrialisation and Enterprise Development had been tasked with ensuring local assembly of the devices.

The Ministry of Education Science and Technology remains the project owner.

Content developers are also set to reap big as the government opens the content development to private sector in liaison with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). 

“We have broadened the ecosystem and will partner with higher learning institutions such as JKUAT, University of Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University and Strathmore to ensure sustainability of the project,” Dr Matiang’i said.

The partnership with higher learning institutions will also ensure adequate device support maintenance and warranty frameworks that ensure adequate local participation and value for money.

“To sustain the programme four key issues have been identified namely; financial sustainability, partnering with key manufacturers to set up local IT assembly plant, capacity building and change strategy,” he added.

Institutions of higher learning can bid for such government projects through their enterprise consultancy firms.

The University of Nairobi has the Nairobi Enterprises and Services Limited while JKUAT has Nairobi Industrial and Technology Park- a subsidiary that recently launched a locally-assembled laptop.

The cost of the first phase of the project is estimated at Sh17 billion and will deliver 1.2 million devices in the next two years to cover all public primary schools. The pilot phase of 150 schools is planned for September, 2015.

President Uhuru Kenyatta in May changed the strategy for the laptop project complete with a name change to “digital literacy”, aiming to revamp its mode of delivery.

Victor Kyalo, the chief executive of the ICT Authority and the technical chair of the Secretariat that is charged with delivery of the new project, said universities with no assembly infrastructure will be given some grace period to build them and produce proto-types.

Two weeks ago, JKUAT unveiled its locally-assembled laptop branded Taifa. The university said it intends to assemble 1,500 units per day, giving it a head start over its peers.

READ: JKUAT targets 1,500 laptops daily at its Juja assembly plant

The laptops are, however, of higher specification than those intended for distribution to primary schools.  The shift in strategy comes on the back of a court case challenging the procurement of laptops to schools, which has stalled the Jubilee government’s flagship project for more than a year.