Roundup of Africa Tech News
Gbenga Sesun is excited over the new technology village in Nigeria's capital, Abuja where he recently met with the manager, Hauwa!
I have heard and read about the Abuja Technology Village like many others but a meeting with the young and dynamic manager of the project has added a huge chunk to my belief in the role Nigeria will play over the next few years — especially through the opportunities that ICTs provide. I met Hauwa through Aminu (another example of a fine young Nigerian who is strategically positioned to add value to the Nigerian project) and I now understand why he sent that first FaceBook message.
Malwai uses radio to broadcast 30 minute educational programmes covering literacy, numeracy, English, and life skills and reach about 800,000 students which is pretty amazing.
Although the programme has only been on the air since January 2008, it has already begun to produce positive results. There has been an increase in attendance among students, and a number of older students are repeating the lower grades in order to receive the benefits of the radio lessons.
“For teachers, a light comes on as they realize PCAR is not that hard to teach, and they are very quickly adopting the program into their classrooms,” says Richmond. “They thank us for making their jobs easier and for giving them better ideas for how to teach a concept.”
Operation Tech Start is an ICT project working with rural agricultural communities in Tabora, Tanzania. The project has started to use a blog to record the activities and work of the community.
On the weekend we visited a “go-down” which is essentially a large warehouse where the tobacco arrives from the farmers and is weighed, re-packaged and placed on a large transport on its way to the eventual buyers. Quite recently, they have initiated electronic tracking of the tobacco bales which provides an excellent example that IT is both welcomed and already improving the efficiency of the business dramatically here.
This is an excellent example of a grassroots project integrating technology with local industries and farming and then using a blog to tell their story.
Maps for Advocacy is the next manual coming from Tactical Tech. I am really excited about this one. Mapping information is so much more powerful than just text. The two African examples of mapping are the ones used in Zimbabwe and Kenya to document acts of violence.
