We were honoured to be invited to the Digitech event on Technology and Innovation on Sunday 23 October at the British High Commissioner’s Residence, which was attended by the Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for International Development.
The event formed part of Ms Patel’s first trip to Africa since being appointed Secretary of State in the summer and involved seeing first-hand how UK Aid investment is boosting economic and educational development in Kenya. The event focused on how digital technology and innovation is transforming the lives of Kenyans, in particular the poor, and the role that UK Aid, Kenyan and UK businesses can play in this transformation.
During the event we explained to Ms Patel how our technology is being utilised to deliver cash payments via smart card to help bring marginalised girls back to school, and demonstrated the process used to monitor student attendance in rural schools.
We were also able to provide Ms Patel with some of our data findings from the programme, which detailed how child literacy is improving due to the online education resources that the digital learning platform delivers to students in the classroom.
In her speech to event attendees, Ms Patel referenced the power of the digital technology on display at the event - in particular the range of platforms that are delivering internet access to Kenya’s poorest children - and how DFID will continue to support these innovative approaches to development in Kenya.
Until next time,
The iMlango team