 Well, it's a pleasure today to have Dr Fred Matianghi with us. He's the Cabinet Secretary for Information Communication and Technology in Kenya. Dr Matianghi, hello. Hello. Thank you for coming today. Now, Kenya has a bit of an interesting track record with innovation, and you've come here to talk about innovation and ICTs and development. What does innovation mean in your context? Well, it means many things. First of all, development of solutions or products to address everyday needs of ordinary people in our country. Innovation is need-driven. Looking at the needs in development, needs in communication, needs in financial transactions, in accessing and moving information, in the use of data to design and develop a number of development solutions. It's all part of what we are describing broadly as innovation. Because all the fields of ICTs. Tell me about some innovations that your country has already come up with, because I know there's been some very important ones, haven't there? Well, yes, indeed. Of course Kenya is famous for the mobile money transfer service, which is an innovation popularly described as M-Pesa, movement of money on the mobile platform. But since M-Pesa, Kenya has come up with so many other innovations. Solutions have been developed on collection of revenue, for example, in various places, using mobile-based solutions. Transmission of data and information on health, we're calling M-Health solutions, developed on the right on the mobile platform. M-Education, you know, we're developing frameworks where, or applications where, information including education, learning, and so on is riding on the mobile platform as it were. And several others, M-Agriculture, for example, in M-Agriculture, we have very creative innovations that have come up in Kenya. For example, M-Cow, you know, which is a solution. An application that enables dairy farmers access information and solutions to some of the challenges in dairy farming, which also again rides on the mobile platform as it was. So several innovations have come up in Kenya as a result of the creative potential in the country. For these systems and ideas to work, of course, you need access. How would you grade access to ICTs in Kenya and what would you see as the big barriers that you have to overcome to roll out improved access to your people? Well, we're improving as government, for example. We're putting in a lot of resources to try and improve access to the Internet in Kenya. We're increasing penetration every year as it were. But of course, for these innovations to thrive, to be scaled up to go to the marketplace, several things need to happen. One, of course, we need very supportive infrastructure. I broadly described this in the meeting and discussion we had this morning as an ecosystem that is supportive of innovation and the ecosystem would include developed infrastructure, ensuring that there is access to the Internet, affordable Internet across the country as it is. And as government, we're working with private sector players to invest heavily in building the infrastructure, taking the five-optic cable across the country, ensuring connectivity across Kenya, and supporting private investors who are trying to enhance wireless connectivity across the country as it were. Secondly, there must be an effective linkage between government, private sector players, industry, research sites or resource sites, as we may call them. We have tried to create that ecosystem also where all the critical actors come together and review a number of things, including the right policies that could support innovation. Third, there's need for supportive financial frameworks that would support innovation. Many of the innovators or those who develop solutions are not necessarily endowed with resources to develop further, to move from incubation to startup to finally marketplace. There's need for resources. As much as we're trying to work with the private sector to attract some NGO funding to do this, we also as the government have done some work through Enterprise Kenya, which is a resource we have created recently. It's a partnership between government and the private sector where we are putting together some NGO funds to be able to do some hand-holding for young innovators to move forward. Fourthly, there's need to develop a very strong intellectual property ecosystem where innovators are not robbed of their creativity and their development as a situa. We have strong intellectual property regime in the country. We're trying to improve on it. And then we have institutions like the Kenya Cooperate Board, KECOBO, and the intellectual property agency that is working on this to ensure that we develop protective frameworks around innovation as a situa. Fifthly, of course, is to ensure that we build the capacity of the innovators to be able to know beyond innovation how do you then move through incubation to start up, then you go to marketplace and so on. And again, jointly, the government is working in the private sector to ensure that this is addressed and sorted out. The sixth issue is, of course, the market. To be able to scale up, you're talking about innovations, being able to marketize, to commercialize, so that they go to the marketplace and so on. And we're trying to see how we can leverage our relationships with our neighbors so that we create one regional ecosystem that supports innovators. So that if we are working within the framework of the Eastern Africa Organization, we are calling the East African Cooperation, or under the Northern Corridor Integration Infrastructure framework, which brings together Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan, we have a framework of about 150 or so million people. And that population provides a huge market and environment for innovation to thrive as it were. And there are many, many other issues. Even if government put together resources, for example, that's not going to be enough. There's need to bring other private sector players, and that's why I hope ITU, for instance, will leverage its responsibility, leverage its institutional network to interest and attract angel capitalists who are computing resources to support innovation on the continent to move forward. Private players also need to help with infrastructure. There is no government anywhere. Whether you look at examples that have been very successful, there's no government anywhere that has been able, in and of itself, to put resources to support sufficient spread of the broadband footprint in their countries. It's important to our private sector players. A question, then, of the classic multi-stakeholder approach. You've got to align all the players in the one direction. Absolutely. It's building a multi-stakeholder approach to supporting innovation. And of course the government being able, through policy, through legislation, through collaboration within and without, to provide an enabling environment for multi-stakeholder engagement and involvement in innovation. But as I was saying, no government has done this on their own and succeeded. Private sector is critical and the dynamism of the private sector is necessary to do this. Well, Dr Fred Matiangi of Kenya, the Cabinet Secretary, indeed for Information, Communication and Technology. Thank you for your time today. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure and thank you for having me. Thank you.