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President Uhuru Kenyatta today said technology will be a major driver for delivering his Big Four plan for growing the country’s economy.

Speaking when he delivered a speech at a symposium on digital technology at the Strathmore College, Nairobi, President Kenyatta said he was confident that the digital revolution will help Kenya achieve the Big Four plan and ensure that growth transforms the lives of the people.

The Big Four include the expansion of manufacturing, affordable housing, food security, and universal health care.

President Kenyatta said technology will support affordable healthcare by driving access to information, better financing, stronger training for health workers, and, ultimately, broader access to services.

He said digital technology will also support efforts to increase food security by playing a key role in agricultural value chains through better access to inputs, more reliable weather and crop information, tracking of counterfeit inputs, more transparent access to markets and fair pricing.

“Digital technology also underpins a range of agro-financing services that are essential for equipping smallholder farmers across the country,” said the president.

The president said Kenya was also positioning itself to reap the most out of the global digital revolution.He said the government will set up a committee on Blockchain and Internet of Things technologies that will study the benefits and challenges associated with the latest digital innovation trends. 

Blockchain is the technology used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and refers to a continuously growing list of records that are linked and secured using cryptography. 

A blockchain, by design, is resistant to alteration or modification and some countries have already started applying the technology for official business.