After the opening of the Kenya Innovation Week 2023 Commonwealth Edition, President William Ruto and Commonwealth Secretary-General Rt Hon Patricia Scotland, visited six grassroots innovators in a DigiTruck managed by Huawei’s TECH4ALL initiative.
The collaborative project includes the involvement of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy, and Sports, the Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy, and other partners, to promote access to technology for an inclusive digital world.
A passionate supporter of innovation as key to Kenya’s success, President Ruto had a conversation with a successful beneficiary of the project, Mohamed Suleiman, from Mombasa County.
Suleiman, after having received 40 hours of training on digital skills in March 2022, and with a tablet provided by Huawei for winning the DigiTruck Innovation Award in Mombasa, began teaching fellow youths some digital skills at a small fee. Not only have the youths he trained used those skills to earn money, but Suleiman’s business has grown enough to enable him acquire a motorbike and set-up a delivery business.
During his opening remarks at the Kenya Innovation Week, President Ruto had specifically mentioned DigiTruck as a programme that effectively promotes grassroots innovation, saying: “I also appreciate the work that Huawei Technologies continue to do in building digital skills and promoting innovations through the country from the grassroots. The DigiTruck programme is a truly bottom-up intervention to promote the development of sound innovative capacity through the provision of technology, the internet, and mentorship.”
President William Ruto interacting with Bricktone Uvwamu, a DigiTruck student innovator.
Photo credit: Huawei
The DigiTruck programme provides digital skills in rural areas, enabling youths to use computers and the internet to study online, work online, trade online, and be safe online. It is part of Huawei’s global TECH4ALL digital inclusion initiative and action plan.
The DigiTruck Innovation Award selects the best three business ideas that the trained youth come up with on how to use their digital skills to improve their community. It is a partnership between Huawei, the Ministry of Youth, Creative Economy and Sports through the Kenya National Innovation Agency and National Youth Council, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy through the ICT Authority, and Safaricom, Computers for Schools Kenya, National Government Affirmative Action Fund, and Close the Gap.
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