Giga is working to bridge Africa’s digital divide, and UNICEF, in partnership with Liquid Intelligent Technologies, is going to support the initiative.
UNICEF with Liquid Intelligent Technologies made the announcement public on Wednesday, December 1st, that they will be working together to support Giga’s project which is to connect every school to the Internet as well as expose every young African to “information, opportunity, and choice.”
Liquid Technologies is providing data needed to map and assess the location and internet access of every school in Africa. This mapping termed “Project Connect” serves as the groundwork for Giga to perform its activities.
In addition to this, Liquid will provide Giga with information about schools’ nearness to telecommunications infrastructure. It will also monitor internet connectivity along the way on a platform to be developed.
Kenya is the starting point of this collaborative project, after which other countries will be included such as Zambia, South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Rwanda.
Thomas Davin, the Director of the Office of Innovation, UNICEF, explained that the partnership will enable Giga to gather a much-needed understanding of the “connectivity landscape” in Kenya and other parts of Africa. He admitted that the knowledge gathered will help UNICEF get more schools to access the Internet.
Addressing the partnership too, Ben Roberts, Group Chief Technology Officer at Liquid Intelligent Technologies, said; “The Giga Initiative from UNICEF and ITU echoes Liquid’s sentiment of creating a digitally resilient economy in Kenya and Africa at large. There is no better place to start than our schools that shape the minds of our children, thereby securing our future.
“This initiative also reiterates the vision of our parent company – Cassava Technologies, of creating a digitally connected continent that leaves no African behind,” Roberts shared.
