Weekly News roundup - Africa April 22, 2008

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Created By: Esther on 22-Apr-2008 12:54 AM

South Africa: ICT Must Be Encouraged at Schools
In order for South Africans to fully capitalise on the potential that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) holds for education, ICT must be encouraged in schools, says Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
"We cannot leave our children behind when the rest of succeeding countries are connected.
"We have to find ways in Africa to get sufficient, sustainable and affordable connectivity to teachers and learners," said the Deputy President.
Speaking at the NEPAD e-Schools stakeholders' conference held in Kempton Park on Wednesday, Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said ICT provides us with the means to achieve key components of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All

Foundation Offers Free IT Training in Nigeria
A non-government and non-profit making organisation, Lagos Grassroots Legacy Foundation (Lag-LEF) is offering free information technology training for 20,000 beneficiaries across the state with a view to improving on the IT knowledge and skills of people living in the state.
The training which took off last Monday is the first phase of the private initiative designed to assist government in the education of people, especially in the area of IT which is the in-thing across the globe.
 

International forum ‘Internet – Education - Science’
Call for participation and partnership of 6th Inter’l conference ‘INTERNET – EDUCATION - SCIENCE’(10-14 October, 2008).The conference will be held activity in 15 sections: Informational society and Internet; Educational and scientific information nets; Internet and computer technologies in the education and scientific researches; Distance education; The education for talented students; Internet in the distributed control systems; Intelligent information systems;- Internet in social and political science; Internet in ecology and health care; The psychology of cyberspace; Computer graphics; Software and hardware; Information protection; - Telecommunication technologies; Fiber-optic technologies for computer networks. Languags: Ukrainian, English, Russian. Matherials of the past forums are presented via http://inc.kursknet.ru/iesin2006e.htm
 

 Maldives Mobile Phone Banking Project
The objective of the Mobile Phone Banking Project in the Maldives is to significantly increase the use of banking system transactions for effecting or receiving payments for labor, goods and services nationwide through the implementation of a national inter-operable payments system that facilitates access to financial services and allows users access to their bank account using any mobile phone operator and cashing through any banking agent.
The project has two main components: (i) create, establish and operationalize the Maldives Interoperable Payments System (MIPS): the payment system is a single currency system operating in Maldivian Rufiyaas (MFW) that will be capable of interoperating with all local mobile network operators and integrating all the banks.

Kenya: Computers Gift to Boost Learning in Area
More than 450 schools in Rift Valley have received free computers from an international charity. This is envisaged to boost learning in the area.
Computer Aid International has been donating computers and educational material to schools and non-governmental organisations in the country to promote information and communications technology (ICT) hub in the region.
Ms Gladys Muhunyo, the Africa Programme Manager, said in Nakuru Thursday that more than 12,000 computers had been donated to various institutions in the country during the last five years.

Uganda: New Communication Platform Launched
A COMMUNICATION platform that uses SMS and voice broadcast to channel information to mobile phones has been launched by Solutions for Business, writes Vision Reporter. Dubbed Be Mobile, the innovative solution is a partnership between Solutions for Business, Beyonic and UK-based company, Super3.
Robert Katuntu, the managing director of Be Mobile, said services to be provided include voice broadcasts and interactive voice responses, call centre solutions and bulk SMS.

Nigerian Governor Commissions ICT Centre
Ultra modern multi-million naira Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Centre, University of Calabar has been commissioned. The Centre, AfriHUB ICT, has 350 computers, 2.5 megabits per second bandwidth, a cyber centre with 150 workstations, five well- equipped classrooms with 20 computers each, a functional business centre and a conference room with video conferencing capacity.
This facility, like its counterpart in AfriHUB at UniZik Awka, UNN Nsukka and Enugu Campuses, provides the critical combination of infrastructure, telecommunications services, IT-training and management necessary to unleash the power of IT, to foster human capacity building throughout Nigeria. With the Unical ICT Center, the University once isolated in beautiful Calabar, is now globally connected, and has become a University on the net.

Country Goes Mobile With a Vengeance
IT IS TURNING INTO AN EXCITING YEAR FOR KEnya's mobile telephony sector. The country's largest service provider, Safaricom, will be listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and two other companies - Econet Wireless and Telkom Kenya - are expected to launch their networks.
The phenomenal growth of the sector, which has seen subscriber numbers rise from a paltry 15,000 in 1999 to 14 million today, poses regulatory challenges to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).


Mauritius: we must learn to communicate
Many events lately have demonstrated that, notwithstanding sophisticated instrumentalities of communication, there is a decline of successful interpersonal communication. Listening is a skill which we have not been trained to develop. Too often messages are received in a distorted form, so much so that the impact of a statement is found to produce monstrous results. Listening implies the evacuation of preconceived opinions and being available for the other. What happens in reality ? The interlocutor is so stuffed with himself, so engrossed with what his views are that he misses a great part of the speaker's message. In fact, listening involves a temporary deliberate evaporation of the ego that arrogates postures of precedence.


The Reporting Skills and Professional Writing Handbook (2nd Edition)
The Reporting Skills and Professional Writing Handbook (2nd Edition) is a self-study programme based on the best of 10 years' experience working with INGOs, NGOs, GOs and IOs over hundreds of training courses. It's available on CDROM for convenient desktop study, and, for larger organisations, the Trainer Edition is supported by a complete Training Pack.
There's a free download of the first module (Professional Writing and the Writing Process) at http://www.reportingskills.org (requires sign-up, but stick around and there's more to follow) or you can get all the info in one document at http://www.reportingskills.org/synopsis.pdf. (ELD is a registered United Kingdom charity so don't worry about either your privacy or getting a virus.) The Handbook is already in use by a wide range of development organisations such as country offices and projects of CARE, CGIAR, GTZ, UNEP and the World Food Programme.

Contact Name: Esther Nasikye

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