UNICEF teams up with corporate Nigeria for OLPC

The United Nations Children and Education Fund and Corporate Nigeria have agreed to adopt the worldwide 'One Laptop Per Child' strategy as part of their corporate social responsibility projects in education, according to HANA's Jonah Iboma (pictured right).

According to details made available to HANA by the 'One Laptop Per Nigerian Child' OLPNC, the organisations promoting the OLPNC initiative, together with UNICEF will help attract leading corporate bodies for the scheme designed to give laptops to children in Primary schools.

OLPC was initiated by Prof.Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to help developing countries in the third world mainly to catch up with the global digital revolution.

A member of OLPNC, Mr. Tomi Davies, said that the US-led non-profit initiative was building an all inclusive and broad-based organisation that would promote and propagate the OLPC idea in Nigeria .

He said, "We have opened discussions with some corporate organizations and some are already helping us.The aim is to start a national debate on digital literacy for Nigerian children so the country can be an active participant in the emerging global knowledge economy for which the use of computers is taken for granted much like access to television and telephones have become fundamentals of today's information age."

He revealed that the Director of Information Technology, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. M.K Ibrahim, Director of Strategy at the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mrs. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, are some of the people that have joined the OLPNC team.

He added that the organizations have also initiated discussions with UBEC, NERDC and other primary and secondary school stakeholders.

"The vision is for the Nigeria of the future to be a leader in the contribution of digitally based intellectual property as a means of capital value creation and competitive advantage in the world. Our children are the future and they are here now. We cannot wait until everything from the past
( i.e. Classrooms, Teachers, Books, Pens etc) is in place and available to all before we start addressing the future (i.e. Laptops, Connectivity, Content, Security etc). Otherwise, the digital divide may become a digital chasm that is too wide for the next generation of Nigerians to bridge," he said.

Davies said initiatives supported by OLPNC include the recently concluded testing of the OLPC XO machines which were distributed to primary school children at Galadima School in Gwarimpa and the proof of concept of the Intel Classmate PCs at the Jabi Junior Secondary School both in Abuja .

The Legal Counsel to OLPC in Nigeria , Mr. Ayo Kusamotu said that Alteq.ict, an IT Consultancy, provided the management for the project at the Galadima School, while the Growing Business Foundation led by Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien financed power generation so that the pupils will have constant power to use their OLPC XO machines.

Kusamotu explained that other members of the increasing OLPNC volunteer team headed by Tomi Davies include Khalifa Galadanchi of IBM.

"The OLPC project in Nigeria is becoming a reality through a not for profit company being formed to take over the role of Team Nigeria and implement the OLPNC project in Nigeria. Discussions are on going about structure, form and membership. The guiding philosophy of OLPC (Nigeria) is digital literacy for Nigerian Children" Kusamotu explained.