President William Ruto announced the Kenyan Government will work on an arrangement to have locally manufactured mobile handsets, which will be affordable within the next year.

Ruto was speaking during the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises round-table annual general meeting held in Nairobi on Thursday.

He said the move will see Kenyans boast of manufacturing the cheapest smartphones on the continent, which will retail for less than Sh5,000.

"The real last mile in technology is the gadget and already we are working with Telcos so that we can have a smartphone that is going to be less than Sh5,000 and that can do everything you want," Ruto said.

"We want to see if we can get it to Sh3,654 or Sh4,872. I want to promise the country that in the next 8 to 12 months we will have the cheapest smartphone in Africa, manufactured in Kenya."

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This he said coincides with the Kenya Kwanza administration’s plan to leverage on technology for efficiency.

Ruto noted connecting the country fully through technology is among his administration’s agenda and he has already set the ball rolling with the telecommunications sector on manufacturing affordable phones.

The Head of State said his government intends to have its services digitized to allow Kenyans to access services remotely, which will move from the current 15 per cent to 90 per cent in the next 6 to 19 months.

"We have about 15% of government services on the digital platform. We plan to move 90% of all government services on the digital platform. By God's grace, between 6 to 19 months, we will have moved 80% of all services onto the digital platform and ensure that you can access government services from the comfort of your home," the president said.

Ruto added he intends to have many more government projects in the digital space, including the Superhighway whose concept is cost-effective in the digital space.

"The concept of the superhighway is to make it cost-effective to work in the digital space. It is supposed to make sure the country is connected,” he said.