More than one million youths are set to benefit from the Jitume program which seeks to enable them to get online jobs in the next 3-5 years from Jitume labs program.

Ministry of Information Communication and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary, CS, Mr Eliud Owalo said the government has rolled out the program to complement the success of the existing digital program such as Ajira and Kenya Youth Empowerment Program.

Speaking at Matili Training Institute in Kimilili Sub County Bungoma, the CS noted that when President Ruto came to power in 2022, he expanded the mandate of the Ministry of ICT and assigned digital economic function to the Ministry.

The program was officially launched by President Dr William Ruto referred as the Jitume labs initiative at Kabete National Technical Polytechnic in December 2022 and seeks to address issues relating to connectivity devices and digital skills as well as job opportunities targeting the youth countrywide.

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“This automatically placed ICT at the core of country economic transformation agenda,” he said.

Further, he noted that technology has put Kenya on the global map as a leading innovation hub noting that the country is home to unique innovation technology such as MPESA among others.

Mr Owalo said that the government was targeting to train youths on ICT skills using existing TVET institutions.

“The main aim is creating a critical mass skilled labour to support and benefit youths from the digital economy. Many of the young people are unable to access training facilities and this is the gap the programme will address,” he said.

He noted each Jitume centre will have up to 100 virtual desktop Infrastructure with broadband connectivity reliable power and security Programme Coordinator is provided by KONZA tele pools which is the leading partner in the program.

Additionally, he noted that each centre will have two main programs, the first one will be a jitume class training component which is aimed at providing training on skills for the digital economy to enable youths to access digital jobs.

He said the class will feature both physical and virtual program-delivering components supported by partners.