Kenya has penned a new partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to accelerate Kenya’s digital transformation agenda, with a renewed focus on artificial intelligence infrastructure, innovation and public sector digital capabilities.
Kenyan Principal Secretary for ICT and the Digital Economy, Eng. John Tanui, met with a UNDP Kenya delegation led by Governance Team Leader Julius Coredo and Project Manager Anna Nylander to review the progress of ongoing collaboration and identify priorities for the next phase of the partnership.
The discussions covered several key strategic initiatives, including the Regional Centre of Competence, which is expanding digital and AI capabilities across Kenya’s public sector, as well as the timbuktoo Africa GreenTech Hub, which supports green innovation and entrepreneurship. The meeting also reviewed the extension of the broader cooperation framework between the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy and UNDP.
A key outcome of the engagement was progress on establishing a national AI computing platform at the Technopolis Development Authority. Supported by UNDP, the platform will be equipped with high-performance NVIDIA GPU infrastructure, providing researchers, universities, startups, innovators and the timbuktoo GreenTech Hub with access to advanced computing resources for developing, training and deploying AI solutions locally.
The AI infrastructure is expected to strengthen Kenya’s sovereign AI capabilities while serving as the foundation for the timbuktoo GreenTech AI Lab. The facility will enable GreenTech innovators to apply artificial intelligence to real-world challenges, supporting innovation, commercialization and investment in locally developed technologies.
The Kenyan government said the collaboration highlights the importance of partnerships between government, development partners, academia and the private sector in building a competitive digital economy. Kenya on its part, reaffirmed its commitment to working with UNDP to Advance Digital infrastructure, institutions, skills and innovation ecosystem needed to support inclusive, resilient and sustainable economic growth in the country.
