Construction of the Konza ICT city,which was supposed to kick off before the end of 2011, is yet tostart with signs of low funding from government and little interestfrom private investors. In the 2012/13 budget estimates, theministry of Information and Communication had indicated the projectwould require a Sh1billion allocation in that year, but as it turnsout in the Treasury might only allocate Sh120 million .
The government had already allocated an initial Sh1 billion out ofthe Sh3 billion needed to complete the first phase. The entire cityis estimated will cost about Sh1.2 trillion . The first phase of the Konza Technology City is expected to becompleted in four years. The plan has four phases which are projectedto follow with involvement of private sector players.
By last year, feasibility studies had been completed and theministry announced the official ground breaking would be aroundOctober. The low allocation of funds is in contrast with the expectedoutput of the city. When complete, Konza city is expected tocontribute about 2.8 per cent to the GDP. When complete, Konza is envisioned to be Africa home ofcomputerisation –an equivalent to California’s Silicon Valley,complete with skyscraper business centres, hotels, internationalschools and hospitals capable of hosting global companies.
The Communications Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo, had earlier indicated low interestfrom local investors in what us supposed to to be a private-publicpartnership. He said in the initial 500 acres of the project, only 40per cent of local investors have taken up space, with 60 Per centtaken by international investors.
