The State plans to start selling non-personal data collected through platforms such as eCitizen in a bid to generate additional revenue from information sought by researchers, businesses, non-governmental organisations and innovators.
Under a new policy proposal, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (MICTDE) will establish an agency to aggregate data from government institutions and oversee its commercialisation.
The proposed National Data Governance and Emerging Technologies Council will facilitate the sale of at least 1,000 datasets from various sources over the next five years, creating a new revenue stream for the government.
Data market
Data collected by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and other State agencies in the course of their operations will also be made available through the State-run marketplace.
Non-personal data collected through eCitizen includes information such as business registration trends, demand for government services, passport and immigration application volumes by region, birth, death and marriage registration trends, vehicle registration statistics and land transaction volumes.
Beyond eCitizen, the government collects a wide range of datasets that it believes could be monetised, including traffic flow patterns and regional crop production data.
Personal data, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, identification numbers and images, will not be available on the marketplace in line with Kenya’s data protection laws, which prohibit the sharing of personal data without consent.
The proposals are contained in the National Data Governance Policy, which seeks to introduce new safeguards for Kenya’s data and formally designate it as a strategic national asset, paving the way for monetisation.
“Establish a national marketplace for the lawful exchange of non-personal, anonymised, and aggregated datasets in the public sector, private sector, research institutions, and civil society,” MICTDE said in the policy proposal.
“The marketplace shall define clear licensing models, pricing tiers, including free access for public good uses and transparent revenue treatment for government data.”
The marketplace is expected to cost up to Sh396 million to develop and operate over five years and is projected to generate revenue for the State.
Strategic asset
While the ministry does not specify which datasets will be commercialised, it notes that various government departments sit on troves of data that can be anonymised and monetised.
“The proliferation of sector-specific and government digital services, including eCitizen, has generated massive data volumes across public and private sectors,” the William Kabogo-led ministry said in the proposed policy.
The government argues that monetising data could unlock economic value and create opportunities for Kenyans to benefit from information generated through public services.
“The recognition of data as a national strategic asset would foster a trusted, regulated data market to unlock economic opportunities and societal benefits,” the policy states.
The proposed council will be supported by a Data Governance Office to manage the marketplace and implementing the wider policy framework.
The move comes amid growing recognition of data as a strategic economic resource globally, with some experts describing it as “the new oil”.
Recent studies indicate that major technology companies such as Google and Meta generate significant value from user data, up to Sh20 million per internet consumer globally, underlining the economic potential of large-scale datasets.
Governments around the world are increasingly exploring ways to monetise public data, creating additional revenue streams while supporting innovation and research.
Singapore has one of the most developed public data marketplaces, providing free access to some datasets while charging for specialised information such as real estate development trends.
The United Kingdom operates a similar model through Ordnance Survey, which generates over Sh34 billion annually from the sale of State-owned geospatial data to private sector developers.
In Africa, Kenya could become one of the first countries to establish a formal public data marketplace. The push for stronger data governance is gaining momentum across the continent as governments seek to retain greater control over data generated by their citizens and capture more of its economic value.
Properly managed data is expected to play a key role in Kenya’s digital transformation. According to the US International Trade Administration, Kenya’s data economy could spur investment in data centre infrastructure worth more than Sh104 billion by 2031 and boost investment in the artificial intelligence sector, currently valued at Sh31 billion.
Beyond monetisation, the policy also seeks to improve the centralisation of data collected by different government agencies to support planning, public service delivery and innovation.
