Kenya bags coveted GSM International Award

Kenya has been featuring prominently in the ICT world and this has been cemented after the Country won the much-coveted global award, the Government Leadership Award. The award was presented to Kenya’s Minister for Information and Communication, Hon. Samuel Poghisio, at the 15th annual Global Mobile Awards during the Mobile World Congress in Spain, Barcelona.

While receiving the award, Hon. Poghisio said that Kenya is investing in mobile and ICT tools that will deliver modern and innovative socio-economic solutions for all citizens.

Kenya was awarded for deploying an open policy making environment and for creating conducive investment opportunities for the communications sector. Communications Commission of Kenya was also recognized for its role in facilitating the landing of the two fibre optic cables TEAMs and Seacom in 2009. Kenya is among the world’s pioneer in the mobile money transfer domain with over nine million mobile money subscribers. It is in this context that Safaricom’s mobile money transfer service, M-PESA, was awarded the ‘Best Mobile Money Service’ during the GSM Association’s Mobile Awards Ceremony.

Zain’s Zap money transfer service was equally awarded the ‘Mobile Money for the Unbanked’. This new category recognizes the innovative mobile banking around the world that offers low cost financial services to millions of people in countries where traditional financial services are not within easy reach.

With increased use of the internet in Kenya, the country emerged as one of the most active users of the popular social networking site Facebook. The online giant said it had recorded significant growth in the number of Facebook users coming from emerging markets such as Kenya. Research from Synnovate reveals that there are over two million users of Facebook in Kenya, with a vast majority accessing the site from their mobile phones.

GSM Association CEO, Rob Conway, reiterated that the government leadership award acknowledges the leadership of the Kenya Government and its determination to improve the lives of Kenyans by making access to mobile broadband and ICTs more available and affordable.

With the projections on the innovative uptake of ICTs by Kenyans, 2010 promises to be a year of exponential growth in the sector.