Kenya targets digital economy growth by 2035

ICT PS John Tanui speaking during a Digital Economy consultative meeting on regulatory frameworks and policies at the Kenya School of Government in Nairobi on May 29, 2026.

The government is developing policies on emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to guide the digital space, ICT Principal Secretary John Tanui has said.

Tanui, however, noted that Kenya already has an AI strategy in place.

He said the government is in the final stages of developing policies on data, noting that AI policies are anchored on three key pillars: AI infrastructure, data, and research, skills development and innovation.

The PS said data remains critical.

“We are looking at Data Governance Framework. That’s what we need to address and make sure AI can take advantage of standardised data. There is that process that both the public and private sectors work so that we can build this new value chain of data. So that, the way we have value chain in other sectors, we have Data value chain for our country and be part of the digital economy,” Tanui said.

He said there is high demand for digitisation, storage and computing for data processing in the country.

“We are discussing how we can increase investment in this sector,” Tanui said.

Tanui spoke on Friday while presiding over a consultative meeting on regulatory frameworks and policies with data centre stakeholders at the Kenya School of Government in Nairobi.

He said the government is committed to growing the digital economy from 7 billion US dollars to 100 billion US dollars by 2035.

Tanui said the establishment of more data centres and cloud services across the country could help achieve this goal.

“We have seen how India and Malaysia have grown, and we think it’s possible for our country but it requires both public and private sectors. That’s the reason we are having this conversation,” Tanui said.

The meeting, organised by the State Department for ICT, brought together data centre operators and cloud service providers alongside government officials.

Tanui said Kenya is currently ranked number two in the country in the digital economy, with close to 20 data centres operating in the country.

“But the potential is huge. We have engaged our partners from other state departments like Investments and Trade to ensure that we address any of your requirements that you need. We know that many data centres can be located in a country like Kenya but there are some in the global market,” Tanui said.

“We have seen some of the countries where digital economy contributes to even 40 percent of their GDP. We think it is possible to achieve that in Kenya. We think we can step it up to 15 or 20 percent in a short time if we all work together as one,” he added.

The PS said Kenya already has an artificial intelligence strategy in place.

He said the country is currently developing emerging AI technologies policies to guide the ecosystem.

Tanui reaffirmed the government’s commitment to accelerating growth of the digital economy by creating an enabling environment for data centre operators and cloud service providers.

He said Kenya continues to position itself as one of Africa’s most promising hubs for global data centres and artificial intelligence (AI) compute infrastructure.

This, he said, is supported by strong investment in digital infrastructure, expanding connectivity, a stable regulatory environment, renewable energy potential, and growing regional demand for cloud and AI services.

The PS said Kenya is rapidly emerging as the digital gateway to Eastern and Central Africa.

“The country currently hosts multiple world-class carrier-neutral and enterprise data centres operated by players such as IXAfrica, Africa Data Centres (ADC), Safaricom, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, iColo, Dimension Data, as well as the Konza National Data Center at Konza Technopolis,” Tanui said.

He further noted that Kenya has one of the strongest international connectivity positions in Africa, with more than eight international submarine cables landing in Mombasa, including TEAMS, SEACOM, EASSy, DARE1, PEACE, and 2Africa, among others.

“This gives Kenya significant redundancy, resilience, lower latency, and a strategic advantage for cloud computing, AI, fintech, and enterprise digital services,” Tanui added.

The PS said Kenya has also made substantial investments in terrestrial connectivity infrastructure to support nationwide digital transformation and regional integration.

Tanui said international cloud and technology companies are increasingly assessing Kenya as a strategic regional destination for cloud regions, AI workloads, enterprise hosting, and digital service delivery.

He noted that Oracle recently confirmed plans to establish a cloud region in Kenya following an extensive evaluation and engagement process, further demonstrating confidence in the country’s long-term digital potential.

The government, he said, continues to develop policies and incentives aimed at enhancing ease of investment in data centres, cloud infrastructure, AI ecosystems and digital manufacturing.

The consultative meeting discussed regulatory frameworks, policies and interventions required to promote investment and growth in the data and cloud services sector.

Representatives from the Konza National Data Centre, ICT Authority, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), Liquid Telecom, Safaricom, Oracle, iColo, Atlantis, TESPOK, and other government and private sector stakeholders attended the meeting.