Group donates computers to schools

Paradigm Initiative has donated forty-seven computer sets to eight secondary schools across Nigeria. The Lagos-based social enterprise made this known in a statement signed by its Communications Officer, Sodiq Alabi.

The beneficiaries include El-Leonora College, Umbrella High School and Soland Int’l School, all based in Ajegunle, Lagos State. Others are Al-Fijr International School, Zaifat Secondary School, ECWA Aro Restoration School and Hameedah Secondary School, all based in Kano State. New World Secondary School, Aba, Abia State also got some of the computers.

Paradigm Initiative has over the years made a name for itself as a leader in digital inclusion efforts in the country and the donation of computer systems to schools is part of the organization’s strategy at expanding bridge digital divide in the country.

Speaking on the development, Paradigm Initiative’s Digital Inclusion Program Manager Tosin Abolaji said, “We recently scaled our digital inclusion programme to schools and one of the things we discovered is the inadequacy of computer systems for the training. So we decided to donate ninety desktop computers to schools that have demonstrated interest in practical digital skills training. We are in the process of identifying more schools that would benefit from this intervention.”

Mallam Kazeem Zakari, the principal of Al-Fijr International School Kano-one of the beneficiary schools, said, “The donation of computer sets to our school is most commendable. We really appreciate the gesture and we are very happy because these systems will make our computer practical session easier.”

Paradigm Initiative runs a free digital inclusion programme known as LIFE, in three under-served communities in Aba, Ajegunle and Dakata, through which it provided free ICT and entrepreneurship training to over 600 youth in 2017 alone. The organisation is dedicated to improving livelihoods of young people by providing them with “ICT-enabled” support system and the donation of the computers furthers the objective of the organisation.