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ELIUD OWALO
CABINET SECRETARY, INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & THE DIGITAL ECONOMY
Eliud Owalo’s appointment as the ICT Cabinet Secretary (CS) in President Ruto’s first administration marked an important career milestone for the seasoned economist. Up until his appointment, CS Owalo plied his trade as a Management Consultant advising multiple government ministries, departments and agencies on strategy, performance management, feasibility studies and other strategic management disciplines. Today, he no longer works behind the scenes as a highly sought-after expert and advisor, but is an executive decision-maker charged with overseeing Kenya’s fast-growing multi-billion shilling digital economy.
Thanks to mega investments in telecommunications infrastructure, rapid innovation in the digital economy, and widespread adoption of financial technology, Kenya today stands tall as a regional ICT powerhouse. Mobile money transfers, for example, reached KES 7.9 trillion in 2022, according to the Economic Survey 2023. This is a 98 percent jump from KES 3.98 trillion in 2018, and more than double the fiscal year (FY) 2023/2024 national budget, underscoring the rapid growth that mobile money and the broader ICT sector has enjoyed in recent years.
Another pointer to the ICT sector’s growing strategic importance to the wider economy is the fact that Kenya has in the past decade become one of the top destinations for tech and digital venture capital deal flows in Africa. Many of the world’s leading tech companies, including stalwarts like Microsoft, Google and Oracle, run their regional operations out of Nairobi, Kenya. The country is recognised as having one of the most talented tech talent pools in the region. As the senior-most government executive official in the ICT sector, CS Owalo has the weighty responsibility of ensuring it continues on this upward trajectory; a sort of CEO of the sector.
In this regard, CS Owalo started with a lot of verve and vigour, providing the necessary leadership and direction that enables policy and regulatory environment to be anchored on a robust institutional framework. He has led multiple efforts to sensitise the private sector, investors and other stakeholders on the National ICT Policy, the Kenya Start-Up Act, Data Protection Act, Digital Economy Blueprint and the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act. These forums and engagements have helped improve the business environment, creating incentives for renewed investments in the sector by existing players and new investors.
Tellingly, Kenyan tech start-ups received a total funding of USD 574.8 million in 2022, almost double the USD 292 million in 2021, according to research by Disrupt Africa. This is an important vote of confidence from investors that Kenya’s ICT sector is open to business.
In addition, CS Owalo is tasked with executing the government’s vision for the ICT sector under the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), which places special emphasis on the Digital Superhighway and Creative Economy.
One of the government’s main objectives under BETA is to enhance service delivery through digitisation and automation of all government critical processes. Thanks to his CS Owalo’s leadership under President Ruto’s guidance, more than 5,000 government services can be accessed online. This has been made possible by the government’s launch of the USSD code *2222#, through which citizens have access to 5,084 government services online.
lunch at Ole Sereni Hotel on September 29,2023.
In addition, CS Owalo is overseeing the provision of public Wi-Fi nationwide. The government has pledged to provide universal broadband connectivity throughout the country by constructing 100,000 kilometres of new fibre-optic lines, establishing 25,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots in market centres in every part of Kenya, and building 1,450 digital hubs in every ward of the country, in collaboration with partners like Google.
CS Owalo honed his leadership skills in consultancy, where he has built an extensive client list cutting across the public and private sector. Through Eliud & Associates Management Consultants, he has handled assignments for leading public and private organisations and institutions.
His areas of specialisation include: development of strategic plans, balanced scorecard performance management, organisational design and development, recruitment, change management and market surveys. This is in addition to microeconomics and macroeconomics.
The CS is an alumnus of Kenyatta University (KU), where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Economics and Business Studies in 1996. He enrolled at the University of Nairobi (UoN) for his postgraduate studies, earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Human Resource Management (HRM). Currently, CS Owalo is pursuing a PhD in Strategic Management at the same institution. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Human Resource Management (FIHRM) and a Member of the Professional Trainers’ Association of Kenya.
