Nigeria, Egypt and other African countries will over the next five years benefit from $1 billion or N128 billion Intel Corporation’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) initiative.
Gordon Graylish, Intel’s Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa disclosed this at a press briefing after the launch of the Intel Classmate Personal Computer at the Jabi Junior Secondary School, Abuja.
From the sum, Graylish said the company has already spent about 100 million euros or N25.8 billion on education and education related fields in the continent.
He disclosed that the company has trained five million teachers and that its five-year plan is to raise the number to 10 million over the next five years.
From the number, the company has trained 89,000 teachers in South Africa and additional 100,000 teachers in Egypt as well as various clubhouses.
Speaking on the company’s project in Nigeria, Graylish disclosed that the company intends to train 150,000 teachers in ICT over the next five years in collaboration with Education Trust Fund (ETF) and Federal Ministry of Education as apart of efforts to impact the country’s drive to adopt knowledge-driven economy.
Also, the company has unveiled plans to invest in the Nigeria’s health care system which he noted will pave way for development in the continent.
Aliyu Umar, FCT minister who lauded Intel’s management for choosing Abuja for the pilot project also called for their partnership in the ongoing Abuja Technology Village (ATV).
He noted that the challenge facing the country with 140 million people is on how to annex our intellect, which he described as the most important asset that Nigeria is endowed with.
“We believe that with the potential of Nigeria and the human capital that we have here, Nigeria. As at now, we can tell you that the Nigerians in Diaspora particularly those in medical profession they are up to about 200,000 based in the United States alone, all of them were trained in Nigeria and all with Nigerian education.”
Umar therefore expressed optimism that Nigeria with recent move, Nigeria will not only become one of the 20 largest economies in the world but also compete favourably intellectually.
In his address, Hussaini Pai, chairman, FCT Universal Basic education (UBE) board lauded Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel Corporation for unveiling the PC classmate programme in line with the global trend of ICT.
He explained that the plan to create a digital society in Nigeria through Intel World Ahead programme was initially seen as a mirage considering the level of ICT education level in the country.
The Intel team, which arrived the Nigeria from an international Summit on ‘Connect Africa’ in Rwanda, is expected to leave the country on Wednesday night.
