Airtel Africa and UNICEF have announced a five-year pan-African multi-million dollar partnership to scale-up digital learning for school children in Nigeria and 12 other countries in Africa.
The Airtel Africa and UNICEF pan-African partnership is to help accelerate the roll-out of digital learning through connecting schools to the internet and ensuring free access to learning platforms across the continent.
Under the pilot scheme of the new initiative, Airtel Nigeria and UNICEF Nigeria as longstanding partners, plan to help connect over 10,000 school children in Lagos and Kano to the internet, to enable children to learn digitally.
Besides Nigeria, learners in Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia stand to benefit from the initiative.
In a statement, UNICEF explained that by providing equal access to quality digital learning, particularly for the most vulnerable children, the partnership will help to ensure that every child reaches their full potential.
According to UNICEF, Airtel Africa’s financial and in-kind contribution for the partnership is $57 million over five years to 2027, noting that the programme will call on technology and expertise, in addition to direct financial support to connect schools and communities to the internet, and enable free access to online educational content for learners.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said: “Hundreds of millions of children in Africa have seen their education disrupted or put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. By championing digital education for children in Africa, this partnership with Airtel Africa will help put children’s learning back on track."
Also speaking, UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Peter Hawkins noted: “Digital learning is the gateway to equipping young people with the right skills - skills that will support them to transition from learning to earning. We are delighted that Airtel Nigeria shares in this vision, and is helping to drive the process of scaling up internet connectivity for school children in Nigeria."
On his own part, the CEO of Airtel Africa, Olusegun Ogunsanya remarked: “As a business, we have focused on education as a key area of our corporate social responsibility, and we are delighted that this partnership with UNICEF will enable us to accelerate results. It also coincides with the launch of our new sustainability strategy, which lays out our commitment to education.
“We are excited to be working with UNICEF to advance the education agenda on the continent through facilitating connectivity and online access to play a role in driving change,” he added.
Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services in Africa, is the first African private sector partner to make a multimillion-dollar commitment to ‘Reimagine Education’, a global initiative launched by UNICEF in 2020 calling for public and private sector investment in digital learning as an essential service for every child and young person across the globe.
This initiative aims to give children a chance to catch up on their learning needs amid the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic.
It will also provide vital data insights to inform UNICEF’s work to scale-up digital learning and help ensure it is sustainable and meets students’ needs across Africa.
