Airtel Commits $1.3m Data to UNICEF Digital Learning Programme in Nigeria

Emma Okonji

Telecommunications services provider, Airtel, has partnered the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), under the Re-imagine Education Initiative, designed to connect 620 primary schools in Nigeria to digital learning in the next three months.

The partnership, which was signed in Lagos at the weekend, is expected to benefit 300,000 students across the country with access to the internet and devices.

Airtel, a telecom company with broadband access, will be providing free data connectivity worth $1.3 million to the schools, for a period five years. 

In the first year of the five-year partnership, Airtel will provide all the resources for digital learning to the 620 identified schools including reliable broadband connectivity, tablets, and free access to a world class curriculum through the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP).

The NLP was developed jointly by the Federal Ministry of Education, UNICEF and Microsoft, as an e-learning platform with online and offline capability that enables continuous access to quality education. Airtel’s support to the e-learning platform will benefit students with uninterrupted access to quality learning materials. Airtel is also providing free access for any Airtel subscriber to Youth Agency Market Place (YOMA), a UNICEF digital platform for skilling, up-skilling and encouraging young people’s engagement.

Currently YOMA has 115,000 users in Nigeria. The number is expected to grow with Airtel support, especially for young people living in hard-to- reach areas with low access to data or connectivity.

During the signing of the partnership deal between Airtel and UNICEF, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Surendran Chemmenkotil, said: “Airtel has completed the process of providing free access to the two digital platforms for the targeted beneficiaries. Airtel has committed $1.3 million worth of complimentary data for the two platforms and data provision for learners in the year alone. Twenty schools in Lagos and Kano will be connected in December 2022, while the connection of the remaining 600 schools will be concluded before the end of February 2023, complete with ultra-modern routers tablets and mobile broadband network.”

According to Chemmenkotil, education, especially digital learning, forms a significant part of Airtel’s sustainability agenda for Nigeria and it will stop at nothing to bridge the huge digital gap that currently exists in mostly rural primary schools across the country.