Friday, March 29, 2024

Harness Frontier Technology, Innovation For The Big 4 Agenda

Share

By JARO ARERO

The Big 4 agenda as a development blueprint has been the buzz word for about two years. This is a five-year plan that aims to fast track Kenya’s development and the realization of the Vision 2030.

The gist of the agenda is raising contribution from manufacturing from the current 8.5 percent to 15 percent, putting up 500,000 new houses, ensure 100percent universal health coverage and 100percent food and nutritional security for all Kenyans.

In the current era of fourth industrial revolution (FIR) where disruptive frontier technologies are turning the traditional industries upside down, large-scale deployment of these technologies are critical for the achievement of these development agenda.

Going by the traditional linear industrialization model, Africa being a continent with a very youthful population will benefit from demographic dividend and hence labour intensive manufacturing will come to Africa as cost of labour goes up with ageing workforce in Asian countries.

But with disruptive technology such as robotics and additive manufacturing, this may not happen, as robots can be deployed to mass manufacturing at a fraction of cost provided by man power in Africa…Read more>>

Read more

Related News