To help fight rural poverty in Nigeria and deepen the skills set of many educationally disadvantaged Nigerians, Microsoft has funded a special development initiative at the Chief Bola Ige Information Technology Centre(BIITC) and other community resource centres across the country.
Microsoft has just approved a grant to BIITC and five other community resource centers (CRCs) for IT training for fishermen, women in purdah, mechanics and other selected groups of Nigerians in the six geo-political zones across the nation. The programme which kicked off last week, will benefit 1,500 Nigerians.
The geo-political spread of the training reflects diversity and relevance. In Abuja (North Central zone), the beneficiaries are physically challenged persons, women in Shea Butter Project and women in weaving business. In Calabar (South South), hundreds of fishermen and women were chosen, while mechanical spare parts dealers were picked from Enugu,
South East zone. For Kaduna North West zone and Abeokuta South West zone, trading, farming and tye and dye were selected respectively. Women in Purdah would be trained from Bauchi North East zone.
Speaking at the formal hand over ceremony in Abuja, Manny Emecheta, the Centre Director of Chief Bola Ige Memorial Centre, stated that “the fight against rural poverty and grassroots illiteracy in Nigeria has been given a massive boost with this bold support by Microsoft. We are most grateful to Microsoft for responding to our call to put in place a consisten developmental programme that will not only feed our people for a day but give them the ability to fish for themselves, and lift them out of poverty”.
The Public Sector Manager for Microsoft Nigeria, Okey Ikpe, said that “Microsoft is firmly committed to promoting technology literacy in Nigeria, and helping ordinary and hard working rural Nigerians, realise their God given potentials. “Our funding of this initiative at the Bola Ige Centre and other Community Resource Centres, is part of our on going Unlimited Potential (UP) programme of action to help bring social and economic opportunity to people who are not yet realising the benefits of technology.
“Through this expansion of Unlimited Potential, Microsoft is increasing its long-term commitment to use technology, training and partnerships to improve education, accelerate innovation, enable jobs and enable sustainable social and economic growth – around the world and here in Africa.”
The expansion of Unlimited Potential will focus on education, innovation, and jobs and economic opportunity.
In the area of education, the company’s five-year, $250 million investment in its Partners in Learning (PiL) programme is already active in 101 countries.
Training has equipped 2.5 million teachers and reached more than 57 million students across these countries.
Across Africa, more than 15 countries have PiL agreements with Microsoft.
Microsoft also announced plans to increase its participation with Microsoft Innovation Centres over the next two years and anticipates opening and supporting 200 centres in an additional 25 countries by 2009.
Microsoft Innovation Centres provide local software communities with a set of programmes and services to expand peoples’ skills – helping to create jobs, strengthen innovation and improve competitiveness.
The Unlimited Potential is executed through a number of partner NGOs. These partners in conjunction with other community resource centres were set up to provide locals with computer literacy support so they can enter the information age and embrace the knowledge economy in their own terms.
The Country Manager for Microsoft Nigeria, Chineneye Mba-Uzoukwu, said that “in the global information economy, the future prospects of individuals and entire nations rest on the quality of education available to them. With an educated citizenry, countries and industries flourish, people’s lives improve through access to better jobs, and the spark of innovation fosters continued human progress.
This reflects our long term commitment to help disenfranchised people in Nigeria and indeed the entire African continent achieve their full scale and economic potential. We are acutely aware of the digital divide that puts many young people at a disadvantage in terms of acquiring 21st century skills and Microsoft is on the road to changing that”
