Siaya County Government Inks Deal with Ajira Digital to Create ICT Hubs

By Eric Omwombo 

Siaya County Government has inked a deal with Ajira Digital to equip thousands of youths with digital skills that would ease their way of doing business on online-platforms.

The County Government will provide infrastructure and frame work while Agira Digital will help impart knowledge and skills to the youth.

According to Governance and Administration Executive Agunda Ochanda, the aim of the program is to create ICT hubs that would empower youth in terms of ICT skills upgrading and related matters. This resonates very well with the manifesto of  Governor James Orengo in terms of youth empowerment and job creation.

“The process is also being driven by the Ministry of ICT and we have agreed to work closely and enter into a scheme of understanding and eventually roll it out in the entire County,” said Mr. Ochanda.

According to Ajira Digital Regional Coordinator Clif Orina it is a deligh to come to Siaya to discuss on an MoU that will see youth trained and equipped with digital skills.

“The aim of the Ajira digital programs is to empower youths. This is a very important program by the government to try and get the youth to appreciate the aspect of using the digital space to earn a living,” said Orina, adding that the Counties are keen on developing digital skills capability of the youth.

The County Government of Siaya in the Nyalore manifesto outlined its vision to develop digital hubs across the County.

“We are looking forward to the next steps after this, we will be engaging the county government of Siaya frequently as we move towards realization of what we have started”, said Orina.

Orina also challenged the youth to take advantage of the digital opportunities yet to be rolled out in Siaya to earn a decent living by working online.

“We call on youths to come out and embrace the digital learning since it’s currently the best alternative employment for youths,” said Orina.

The Program Coordinator said they were on a mission of reaching out to youths at the far-flung areas and urged them to aggressively grab the existing opportunities.

“The programs would enable trained youths to be job creators. There are many areas that when exploited from the program will help change the narrative that there isn’t work for the young,” said Orina.

Orina said the program is an important cog in transforming counties economies and addresses the unemployment crisis.

So far online jobs contribution to the economy stands at KES 1 billion and is projected to rise to KES 1.4 trillion by 2025.

It is projected that more than 50 percent of Jobs will be automated in the next ten years while 5 percent of jobs will disappear. That means 9 out of 10 jobs will require digital skills and digital capabilities.

The dynamic changes will require everyone to be digitally savvy in order to survive and remain relevant in the work place.

In the recent training that brought together County Communication officers from Western Region, the Media Council of Kenya told participants to embrace technology in their reporting.

The director of Media training and Development Mr. Victor Bwire said there is a low percentage of Kenyans still embracing newspapers for news. The higher percentage of Kenyans have shifted to digital platforms including tik-tok, facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get news updates

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