Kenya has positioned itself at the vanguard of Africa’s digital transformation with the launch of its broadband mapping system, part of a wider project spanning 11 Sub-Saharan countries.
- •The Africa Broadband Mapping Systems (Africa-BB-Maps) is backed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the European Union (EU), and it is intended to provide policymakers with precise data on broadband infrastructure and coverage.
- •A new ITU report ranks Kenya in the “advanced” cluster of countries alongside Nigeria, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire; a status reflects a robust record in broadband policy, infrastructure expansion, and resilience.
- •The country leads the group on infrastructure coverage and resilience, underscoring the benefits of years of investment in backbone fiber, mobile broadband towers, and redundancy systems designed to withstand outages.
“As a regional leader in ICTs, Kenya has firmly positioned itself on the path toward a digital future, with ambitions on broadband penetration by 2030, prioritising the unserved and underserved communities that have historically been left behind in digital connectivity,” said the Principal Secretary for Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Steve Isaboke.
“The ability to link broadband mapping to socio-economic planning will allow us to prioritise connectivity for economic zones, health facilities, agricultural hubs, and community centres, directly improving education, healthcare, commerce, and governance outcomes,” emphasized David Mugonyi , Director General of the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).
Yet beneath these gains lies a critical weakness that the report noted. Kenya lags behind the best performers in data collection, verification, and accuracy. Whereas Benin and Nigeria have introduced stronger systems for independent audits, standardized geographic information protocols, and real-time validation tools, Kenya continues to rely heavily on operator-reported data. The absence of rigorous verification mechanisms raises the risk that broadband maps reflect theoretical coverage rather than the actual experience of households and businesses, particularly in rural and underserved regions.
Broadband maps that overstate service quality could distort policy priorities and misdirect funds from the Universal Service Fund, which is meant to extend connectivity to communities at the margins. Without systematic incorporation of crowd-sourced feedback, independent field surveys, or automated validation, gaps in service quality may remain invisible in official reporting.
The €15 million broadband mapping initiative will also benefit Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Eswatini, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. By design, it will enable peer comparison and the sharing of solutions among countries at different stages of maturity. For Kenya, a recognized leader in digital infrastructure, shortcomings in data accuracy risk undermining that benchmark role.
The ITU assessment also points out that Kenya is less advanced in service mapping and regulatory monitoring, in comparison to Malawi and Zambia, which perform better on service mapping despite lagging behind Kenya in infrastructure maturity. As more resources flow into broadband deployment under regional and international initiatives, the credibility of data will be as critical as the rollout of cables, towers, and satellites.
