Kenya’s government may need a total of $1.8 billion to fund its free laptops for schools initiative for the next five years, which is expected to begin by January next year.

This is according to Kenya’s permanent secretary in the ministry of information and communication, Bitange Ndemo.

Ndemo’s comments come after Kenya’s fourth president, Uhuru Kenyatta, announced that the laptops are planned to be locally assembled in a bid to boost local technology take-up.

During the election campaign period, President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto pledged to provide free solar-powered laptops to each of the 800,000 children joining Class One in 2014.

“My government will deliver on its promise of free laptops next year,” President Kenyatta said while giving his maiden speech parliament and senate last week.

“Our vision is to have the laptops assembled locally. Class one laptops pledge is not over ambitious, indeed with parliament's help, we can have them assembled in Kenya,” Kenyatta added.

However, it is not clear what the exact price cuts could be if the machines are assembled locally.