Govt mulls aggressive campaign to raise Sh1bn daily on eCitizen » Capital News
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 8 — The government is targeting at least Sh1 billion daily revenue on eCitizen by December by increasing subscribers to its digital services platform to 30 million.
Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok said the revenue figure will increase from the current Sh700 million by increasing the number of Citizen users from 13 million.
He said the department will achieve the target by ensuring all eligible
Kenyans obtain an ID which is required to register an eCitizen account.
Also targeted is an aggressive publicity campaign that will profile the benefits
of eCitizen such as the convenience offered by 24-hour access to over 16,000 online government services irrespective of the physical location of the client.
“On average, we are enrolling about 20,000-30,000 people every day. We are
at 13 million and we’re looking at the entire population of Kenya which is 32
million adults. We are halfway and within one to two years, we should have
everyone with a digital ID.”
He was speaking at the Network of Africa Data Protection Associations
(NADPA) conference in Nairobi. Kenya, through the Office of the Data
Protection Commissioner, is hosting this year’s annual event.
The focus of three-day conference is how African governments are investing
in digitisation of services while ensuring inclusion, data protection and data
privacy.
Prof Bitok said the elimination of vetting committees for issuance of IDs along
border communities beginning this month is meant to make it easy for every
Kenyan to access a digital National ID and the attendant benefits.
“We have removed vetting for identity documents which is an effort to ensure
no Kenyan is left out or discriminated as far as getting the documents is
concerned.”
The government is also banking on the new digital Identity card also known as
the Maisha Card and its supporting ecosystem to provide a registration regime
that is more secure from forgery and identity theft.
According to the PS, the Unique Personal Identifier also known as the Maisha
Namba that will be a lifelong number will negate the need for different
government institutions to collect personal data that is prone to breaches.
“There are four components in this digital ID ecosystem. Maisha Number, given
to newborns which will run across their lives, in primary school, secondary,
university, NSSF and NHIF and will appear in one’s death certificate.”
To protect the large of volumes of data involved in eCitizen operations, the PS
said periodic data impact assessments, data safety audits and compulsory
MoUs with third part data handlers are being undertaken.
The Data Commissioner, Immaculate Kassait, said her office was happy with
efforts undertaken by the State Department to safeguard data security and
privacy concerns.
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