Kenya crossed a critical milestone in its digital transformation journey yesterday with the establishment of the National Open Source Programme Office (OSPO).
This was developed as part of the Open-Source Ecosystem Enablement Project, in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union, and with funding from the German government's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
John Tanui, Kenya Principal Secretary: State Department for ICT and Digital Economy, said: “This landmark initiative positions Kenya among the first countries globally—and the first in Africa—to set up a national OSPO in collaboration with ITU.
“The OSPO will serve as a central hub to coordinate, promote and sustain open-source adoption across government, innovation ecosystems, academia, private sector and our developer communities.”
He went on to say: “We appreciate the leadership and recognition from Dr.CosmasLuckysonZavazava, director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, who joined the session to congratulate Kenya for this bold and strategic step.
“We also acknowledge the presence of Ms. Katherina Mänz, Acting Head of Digital at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), underscoring the strong international partnership supporting Kenya’s Digital Public Infrastructure agenda.”
Explaing why the initiative matters for Kenya and Africa, he said: “This initiative is more than a technology program — it is about digital sovereignty, innovation, skills development, and empowering nations to co-create, co-own and co-innovate digital public goods.”
He said the OSPO will build national capacity on open-source development, security and governance; promote reuse of digital public goods and reduce duplication of government ICT investments; strengthen interoperability and co-creation of digital solutions across government and enable Kenya to serve as “a regional lighthouse, sharing learnings with other African nations.”
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