Zain installs services to help the poor

Story: Boahene Asamoah, Nairobi, Kenya

ZAIN, the new owners of Westel, and an international mobile phone operator in the Middle east and Africa, through its partner, Ericsson has installed a mobile network service to support the less priveledged in society as part of the company’s social responsibility.
The project, which is under the Millennium Villages project at the Columbia University, is a bottom up approach of lifting rural villages out of poverty throughout its operations in Africa.
A tour of one of the projects in Dertu, a remote and isolated village, 800 kilometres from Nairobi by some international journalists from Africa, Middle East and Europe, revealed how mobile service was helping to lift over 4,000 residents out of poverty.
Zain has installed the terrestrial infrastructure that covers 24 kilometres and has provided the community with sim cards, while Ericsson provided affordable handsets to the villagers.
Briefing the journalists, the Project Co-ordinator of the Millennium Villages, Mr Ahmed M. Mohamed, said due to the provision of mobile telecommunication services the villagers could now have access to the global world, adding that the project has tremendously improved the lives of the people.
He said the mobile phones was now being used by the villagers to monitor the status of water, pasture, pests and diseases surveillance by animal health workers, the government and project workers as well as the pastoralists.
He said the mobile phone service had in addition, offered other business opportunities to the villagers such as cash earned from the use of the service, charging ,as well as using the service to make orders for goods and services from neighbouring towns.
Hitherto, the villagers had to travell over 90 kilometres to the nearest town, Garissa to make purchases or to sell their products.
Mr Mohamed said the service had also improved social networks by connecting the villagers to family members in Kenya and in the diaspora.
It has also made the tracing of lost animals and children within 20 km radius, helped in the health provision and improved security among other benefits, he stated.
Zain has provided the only primary school in the village with a computer with Internet facility to facilitate teaching and learning in the community.
The only health post in Dertu have also been upgraded and provided with Internet accessibility.
The District Administration Officer in charge of the area, Mr Evans Kyule expressed the government’s apprecation for the support of the two organisations by developing the area.
He said security in the area had improved tremendously since the installation of the mobile phone service in the community.
The Chief Executive Officer of Zain, Africa, Mr Chris Gabriel, said the company would support such initiatives that would help to uplift the lives of the rural communities from poverty.
He said the company would upgrade the current infrastructure to ensure the service was extended to cover more villages within the area.
The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is a 5-year joint venture between the Earth Institute of Columbia University, 10 Governments in Africa including the Government of Kenya, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other partners. There are 14 Millennium Research Villages (two new) all in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Under the Zain and Ericsson partnership, mobile communications and Internet connectivity is expected to reach over 400,000 people in Sub Saharan Africa, including Ghana.