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Inside Kenya's plan to woo Silicon Valley innovators

 


Photo: Silicon Valley data center

Kenya President William Ruto travelled to Silicon Valley in the USA in a plan to woo innovators into investing in Kenya.

Ruto tours Silicon Valley

President Ruto's USA tour come weeks after he issued a charter to the Open University of Kenya (OUK).

OUK programmes are tailored to be delivered virtually. The University is located at Konza City, which offers technologically geared courses to spur rapid tech-related innovations in varied disciplines.

Ruto seeks to connect the Silicon Savannah to the Silicon Valley in the United States of America.

Tech Giants such as Microsoft, Google and Apple are set to heavily invest in the Konza Technopolis City after Ruto's tour.

President Ruto accompanied by US ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman met Apple CEO Tim Cook, Intel's Pat Gelsinger and Google CFO Ruth Porat.

"Kenya is your gateway to the Silicon Savannah, to the East African Community, the most integrated regional market of 500 million, and a Pan-African market of 1.4 billion. If you build it in Kenya, it works for Africa, and if you set up in Kenya, your African footprint is guaranteed,” president Ruto stated.

He acknowledged the commitment of giant tech companies such as Google and Apple in funding Kenya based startups and the provision of essential tech-based services in the healthcare sector.

Why Silicon Valley is famous

Silicon Valley is located in the Southern part of the San Francisco Bay, Northern California.

It was developed between San Jose, California and San Francisco.

Silicon Valley is the home of many startups and giant global tech companies.

Technology Companies in the Silicon Valley include Google, Meta, Apple, Cisco Systems, eBay, Intel, Alphabet Inc, HP, Adobe Inc, Techstars, Salesforce, Amazon, PayPal, Tesla, Visa, Netflix, Visa and Twitter among others.

The history of the world's top technological hub dates way back in the 1940s to 1950s when Frederick Terman, the iconic dean of Stanford engineering school, developed an idea of the faculty creating their own companies.



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