Digital economy blueprint

6.2 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR 

INNOVATION 

Research targeted at enhancing innovation will allow 

businesses to gain a competitive advantage, support 

sectors to transform, and achieve their digitalization 

potential. To achieve this, the strategy will focus on 

a framework for creating various facilities and pro-

grams to enhance and support the country’s innova-

tive capability to enable them to build new and inno-

vative products.

6.3 FOCUS AREAS

Developing the entire value chain of innovation driv-

en entrepreneurship will contribute greatly to the 

GDP, and in addition aim to surpass the traditional 

sectors that add to Kenya’s GDP. To achieve that, 

these are the focus areas;

i.  Entrepreneurial interest in the innovators i.e. in-

novators come up with ideas that can be com-

mercialized.

ii.  Funding towards research and innovation.

iii.  Seed capital, angel investment, venture capital, 

for investments.

iv.  Tax and other incentives (including subsidies 

and waivers), innovation-oriented companies 

that may include companies involved production 

of digital products. To include tax support and 

other incentives for startups.

v.  Commercialize with an aim of globalizing busi-

nesses in order to grow or scale up

vi.  Support business models that leverage on both 

open access and intellectual property systems.

vii.  Incubation and accelerators for innovation e.g 

Ministry of ICT “Whitebox”

viii.  Vision and strategy for innovation driven entre-

preneurship 

ix.  Development of talent/human resources for digi-

tal businesses/economy 

x.   Facilitation of access of Public procurement for 

innovation products by innovation driven entre-

preneurs 

As with most countries around the world, Kenya is 

already deeply engaged in the process of understand-

ing the levers that will push it from being a traditional 

agrarian or manufacturing-based economy to a fully 

automated, information-based economy.

Many countries are engaged in a race to establish 

information supremacy, with those who are able to 

grow and attract the high value and knowledge-inten-

sive manufacturing, research, software, information 

technology, and services jobs being the ones that will 

likely overcome the challenges brought about by a 

new information-based age.

In a global economy where low value-added, com-

modity production of goods or services can, and does 

locate in nations with low wages, communities are 

fighting a losing battle by competing on the low end.

But even as this push continues, it by no means indi-

cates that industry and manufacturing should be ne-

glected. Instead, in building a digital economy, more 

countries are ensuring that their traditional enterprises 

still rely heavily on the core foundations of the drivers 

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DIGITAL ECONOMY BLUEPRINT

of the economies of old. What’s different is that these 

industries are modernizing, and taking advantage of 

the  cost-cutting  efficiencies  brought  about  by  new 

technologies.

These shifts are creating more productive companies 

which compete on a global scale, with their key dif-

ferentiators being value addition, efficiency, and high-

er productivity.

Government’s that are keen to adopt this approach 

must support new ideas and innovations by creating 

enabling policies and incentives for knowledge-based 

businesses.

Kenya already possesses a number of elements that 

make up a vibrant innovation ecosystem. Its popula-

tion is young (over 50% are under 18), and relatively 

well educated; and there already exists a strong bias 

towards innovation for growth. Kenya is already the 

world’s biggest mobile money market, and has al-

ready made several strides in establishing itself as the 

Silicon Savannah.

An increasing number of innovations being brought 

to life in Kenya are typically incremental and frugal 

innovations that have led to the redesign of products 

and business models that significantly reduce costs. 

As Kenya moves to its next phase of growth as an 

innovation economy, strengthening innovation capac-

ity and ensuring it creates an enabling business envi-

ronment for entrepreneurs and established companies, 

innovation will become an increasingly important and 

critical area of focus to power sustained economic 

growth.

Kenya will have to build the capacity to acquire, dis-

seminate, and use technologies to promote innovation 

and  encourage  new  and  existing  firms  to  invest  in 

business opportunities.