The Chinese Government on Friday 20th December handed over 800 digital television project to Kenya as part of the 10,000 Villages Digital Television Project in Africa.
The project that was launched in June 2018 has been successfully implemented across the 47 counties through the installation of satellite television services in public institutions and select individual households.
Twenty households in each of the 800 villages were installed with satellite television service composed of a satellite dish, a high definition set-top box and accessories while three public institutions in each village received two solar-powered satellite projector TV systems and one 32 inch television set.
The lucky ones are….
In total, 16,000 individual households and 2,400 public institutions have benefitted from the project.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, ICT Cabinet Secretary Mr Joe Mucheru said the 10,000 project has not only absorbed 1,600 of Kenyan youth to work as maintenance personnel but has been implemented through satellite television technology thereby reaching every corner with a balanced mix of both local and international channels.
The project cost Ksh842,708,300 – Ksh428,215,900 equipment and Ksh414,492,400 implementation cost – and was rolled out through the Ministry of ICT with digital television company StarTimes as the contractor. The Ministry taskforce developed set criteria that were used to qualify beneficiaries ensuring equity in the distribution process.
“The 10,000 digital television project has gone a long way towards driving access to information and especially in the rural areas which has played a significant role in China-Africa people-to-people exchange, thereby enhancing the level of China-Africa cooperation,” said Chinese Ambassador to Kenya H.E Wu Peng.
StarTimes Kenya Chief Executive Officer Mr Andy Wang applauded the Government of China for conceptualizing this initiative, which is key in growing access to digital television in the wake of the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting and the Kenyan Government for welcoming this investment.
The 10,000 village project is among the 10 cooperation plans announced during the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) announced in 2015 in Johannesburg South Africa by the President of China Mr Xi Jinping.
The conference was attended by Heads of State and Government, Heads of Delegation, the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission and Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers in charge of economic cooperation from China and 50 African countries.
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