The Group Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Segun Ogunsanya, has reaffirmed the joint commitment by Airtel Africa and the United Nations Children’s Fund to accelerate access to quality education for millions of children in Africa, through digital learning.
A statement from the firm disclosed that Ogunsanya said this during a visit to Kitende Secondary School, Entebbe, Uganda.
According to Airtel Africa, the school is one of the schools it connected to the Internet.
The firm’s CEO said, “Airtel Africa is cognisant of the great value education contributes to our nations across the continent, which is why we are very deliberate in promoting education and empowering our people.
“Airtel Africa will continue to support the shared efforts of the government of Uganda, by identifying and collaborating with strategic partners like UNICEF to transform the way our children learn. We commit to do this in Uganda and across the 13 other countries where Airtel Africa operates.”
Ogunsanya also recognised the efforts of Uganda’s government in digitising education, highlighting the role being played by UNICEF in supporting African children.
Also speaking at the occasion, the state Minister for Primary Education, Dr Moriku Kaducu, pledged the government’s support of the partnership in the form of a conducive policy framework and continuous engagements to drive down the tax rates on end-user devices and data for educational purposes.
The UNICEF representative to Uganda, Dr Munir Safieldin, added, “Through the Kolibri digital learning platform, the partnership will reach 54,000 students with USSD/SMS-based content optimized for mobile.
“Currently, Kolibri is available in over 100 secondary schools with computer labs and 15 youth-friendly ICT centres in refugee settlements. An estimated 16,000 learners and 350 teachers in secondary schools have interacted with the Kolibri initiative.
“More than 1,080 adolescents and 200 trained volunteers are involved in the out-of-school Kolibri initiative implementation. To date over 7,500 registered users with over 200,000 content interactions.”
