U.S. computer services company IBM and Kenya have opened a research lab they hope will save the country billions of dollars by developing technology to improve delivery of public services.<\/p>\n
While IBM did not say how much it would invest, Robert Morris, vice president for services research, said on Monday it would be a “significant” amount. Globally, IBM ploughs about $6.5 billion per year research and development.<\/p>\n
Kenya will contribute $2 million annually over five years, information and communication permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo said, with copyrights for resulting works being shared.<\/p>\n
Kenya, Rwanda and other countries in east Africa have vibrant ICT sectors, typified by successful mobile phone-based money transfer services, bill payment services and mobile banking.<\/p>\n
Ndemo said while it was hard to quantify the savings from the resulting research, automating various government services would save billions of dollars.<\/p>\n
“There are several registries, which if we completely automated, our estimate is that we can plough back to the Exchequer up to $10 billion by simply creating efficiency through higher productivity,” Ndemo said.<\/p>\n
IBM, which has a presence in more than 20 countries on the continent, said the single biggest challenge facing African cities was improving services such as water and transportation.<\/p>\n
In Africa, IBM, a bellwether for the IT industry because of its worldwide reach and breadth of businesses, already provides network support for telecoms firms and commercial banks, among others.<\/p>\n
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