President William Ruto on Wednesday, November 27, directed that the Kenya Innovation Agency(KENIA) be domiciled in the Office of the President to commercialise key innovation opportunities in the country.
Speaking during the opening of the Kenya Innovation Week 2024 in Nairobi, Ruto announced that the decision stemmed from a need to commercialise innovation activities especially those from higher learning institutions.
Ruto announced that the directive will also help the government track key innovation ideas and technologies advanced by Kenyans.
''It becomes necessary that this agency moves to a central place where we can harness all these opportunities and assist in creating the momentum for job creation, I, therefore, instruct that the Kenya Innovation Agency moves to the Office of the President,'' Ruto directed.
''Because of the cross-cutting nature of innovation across different fields including agriculture, technology, and the necessity to harness university education, it is therefore important to move it to a central place,'' he added.
According to Ruto, the directive will help the government, through the agency to create more jobs for the youth even as the country struggles with high unemployment rates.
''It is important that we harness the opportunity in this space as part of our plan of making sure that we create high-quality jobs for our youths,'' he added.
''It is easy for politicians to stand on top of podiums and glorify unemployment, but it takes decisions and policy frameworks, that is why we are taking such decisions to create jobs,''
The President also proposed an additional Ksh500 million budgetary allocation to the agency to help it promote the intake of innovative ideas noting that he will write a formal proposal to Parliament.
''I am going to be proposing to Parliament Ksh500 million for the innovation agency and a Ksh1 billion for the startup fund so that we can provide resources to derisk some of the venture capital that is coming to Kenya,'' he added.
KENIA is a state corporation established under the Ministry of Education with a core mandate of developing and managing the national innovation system.
Among other key roles that the agency plays is promoting and encouraging as well as registering innovative ideas and works by the youth.
The government will be looking forward to utilizing the new development at the agency to promote the generation of creative technological ideas to spur economic growth.
