Kenyan delegation visiting Italy yesterday held a high level meeting with Infratel Italia, led by CEO Pietro Piccinetti, to explore collaboration in broadband expansion, digital-superhighway development, and smart-infrastructure planning.
John Tanui, principal secretary: State Department of ICT and the digital Economy, is leading the team from the East African country and was also joined by Frederick Lusambili Matwang’a, Kenya’s Ambassador to Italy.
Tanui said: “Both sides agreed to begin work on a Kenya–Infratel Memorandum of Understanding covering connectivity, national infrastructure mapping, public Wi-Fi, Smart City initiatives, and capacity development.”
He went on say key focus areas included: large-scale fibre deployment and 5G rollout models; Italy’s national infrastructure cadastre for coordinated planning and reduced excavation; public Wi-Fi networks and digital inclusion strategies; submarine-fibre connectivity for islands and remote regions, infrastructure mapping, national backbone planning, and market-failure analysis and opportunities for cooperation under the Piano Mattei framework.
The Piano Mattei is a strategy framework established by Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni's administration to redefine and strengthen Italy's engagement with African countries through a "non-predatory" partnership approach.
Its goal is to promote development and economic cooperation while simultaneously addressing challenges like energy security and migration management.
Tanui concluded: “This partnership will advance Kenya’s Digital Superhighway agenda and deepen knowledge-exchange between our two nations.”
The Digital Superhighway project aims to lay 100 000km of fibre optic cable, 25 000 public Wi-Fi hotspots and 1 450 digital village smart hubs.
Share
