•The CS said the world is rolling on the wheels of digital technology.
•"Digital Technology is at once the engine, the fuel, the wheels and the driver taking the global community into the future. If you are not yet on this vessel, you risk becoming irrelevant," he said.
Image: HANDOUT
Information Communications and Digital Economy CS Eliud Owalo has lauded Safaricom for including children in the digital space.
"It has often been said that if you want to know where a nation is going, look at its children. The faces of our children are the finest indicators of our tomorrow," he said.
"Our involvement with our children must be constructive and intentional."
Speaking during the launch of MP-Pesa Go, a new financial product targeting teens and preteens between the age of 10 to 17 years, the CS said the world is rolling on the wheels of digital technology.
"Digital Technology is at once the engine, the fuel, the wheels and the driver taking the global community into the future. If you are not yet on this vessel, you risk becoming irrelevant," he said.
M-Pesa Go will allow subscribers to send and receive money, purchase airtime and bundles, use Lipa na M-Pesa services and access M-Pesa Super App dubbed as the 'M-Pesa Go App.'
The service will be over-sighted by the parents or guardians to raise a financially healthy generation who are prepared for a cashless world.
Owalo noted that Safaricom is helping the country to define and occupy coordinates in cyberspace and in the global digital economy.
"Thanks to Safaricom’s M-PESA, Kenya is now recognised on the global stage as a pioneer in the mobile money transaction space. M-PESA is now becoming a way of life, and not just a money transfer platform. I am pleased to note that Kenya is now selling this way of life to other countries," he said.
"We must continue to seek to be innovative and to occupy an integral place on the cutting edge of digital technology. We must seek to go beyond being consumers, to leading innovators in cyber tech."
The CS also said his ministry is keen to expand the digital superhighway by 100,000 kilometres in line with Kenya Kwanza's development plan.
While in South Korea, during the 2022 International Conference on Economic Innovation Partnership Programme (EIPP), Owalo said the two countries will further partner in expanding the digital superhighway by 100,000 kilometres in the next 10 years.
He also said the country seeks to create 25,000 free digital hotspots across the country, in order to include more Kenyans in the digital and creative economies.
"This is an exercise that has already begun. Once again, we welcome partners on this noble mission."