Airtel Gabon will provide $4.3 million to UNESCO to impliment a youth ICT training initiative in Gabon for three years. The project dubbed Train My Generation: Gabon 5000, will provide scientific and entrepreneurial training through ICT to thousands of young people in Gabon and deliver new skills to secondary school teachers.
According to Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, “The African Private sector is extremely dynamic and I am very proud today to sign UNESCO’s first partnership with a company based in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
The two will set up ten Cyber Centres equipped with servers and computers at schools in Libreville, Port Gentil, Oyem, Franceville, Bitam and Lambaréné. The iniative targets to give ICT skills to 5,000 young people, aged 18 to 35 and provide training in online teaching to 100 secondary education science teachers who will in turn provide online educational support to 15,000 secondary school students.
According to Olivier Herve Njapoum, the Director-General of Airtel Gabon, “Through this partnership, Airtel wishes to benefit from the expertise of one of the most important organizations of the United Nations System […], UNESCO, whose programmes in Africa contribute to the promotion of innovation based on knowledge technologies.”
The deal was signed in Paris in presence of Ambassador of Gabon, Gisèle Marie Hortense Ossakedjombo-Ngoua Memiaghe.
