Pilot project will commence in Lang’ata and Kileleshwa in the next one month.
In Summary
- Safaricom has so far laid out about 1,300 kilometres of fibre-optic cable in the country.
- Governor Evans Kidero said Safaricom would provide City Hall with the back-end infrastructure for the project.
CEO Safaricom Mr Bob Collymore
By LILLIAN MUTAVI
The Nairobi County government has partnered with telecommunications firm Safaricom in an ambitious Sh4 billion project to connect city homes to high-speed fibre-optic Internet over the next three years.
The county plans to increase household connections from 10 per cent to 40 per cent, with the pilot project starting in Lang’ata and Kileleshwa in the next one month.
Thus far, Safaricom has laid out about 1,300 kilometres of fibre-optic cable in the country.
On Tuesday, Governor Evans Kidero said Safaricom would provide City Hall with the back-end infrastructure for the project and an M-Pesa platform for their electronic payment platform e-Jijipay.
Dr Kidero said his government would also partner with Safaricom to decentralize its information communication and telecommunications service functions to seven major locations in the city.
The county boss said the decentralisation would ease the process of doing business with the clients, who will no longer have to come to the city centre for business.
“Currently 70 per cent of buildings in the city have been connected to the high-speed fibre-optic cables.” said Dr Kidero.
Speaking at the same forum, Nairobi Deputy Governor Jonathan Mueke said the county government is working to ensure that service providers no longer dig up roads and leave them uncovered.
Mr Mueke called on Safaricom to take up the integration of the traffic management system to help in synchronising lights and ease movement in the city and its environs.
