Every Saturday afternoon, groups of local children always gather together in the 44 District of jisulai and the "konnect hub" of jinmanmen community in Kenya to listen to the voice of the world through the Internet. Here, volunteers from different countries bring local conditions and customs around the world through the large screen. At the same time, they also teach them mathematics, geography, history, art and other contents that interest children.
Zhou Tao, founder of Norian center and head of African Norian network technology company (Ahadi Wireless Limited), told reporters that Ahadi means "commitment" in Swahili and konnect means "connection". As the first Internet education space in the local community, the Connaught alliance centre aims to provide more Internet plus services to low-income families in Kenya. "At first, we just wanted to build a service center, which is somewhat similar to the business hall of domestic operators. Later, we considered that if the service center is placed in the community, we can better realize the connection between people, people and society, enterprises and communities. At the same time, we can use the community center as a window to help local people better understand the world."
According to Zhou Tao, low - and middle-income families account for about 80% of the population in Nairobi. There are a large number of young people here, and there is great potential for the development of the Internet market and digital economy. In recent years, Internet access in Africa has increased rapidly, but the penetration and utilization rate still lag far behind other parts of the world. High costs and lack of digital skills are the main constraints.
According to data, the monthly household broadband cost of Kenya's largest communication operation company is more than 3000 KSHS (1000 KSHS, about US $9.2), and the coverage is limited. In the 44 District of kissulai, about 20 kilometers away from the center of Nairobi, the average monthly income of residents is 20000 to 50000 kenshillings. As a large low - and middle-income community, most residents in jisulai District 44 lack access to education and are engaged in informal economic sectors and low skilled labor. The high cost deterred them from the Internet.
In order to help the residents here cross the digital divide, after more than two years of efforts, Zhou Tao found a solution. By cooperating with China Telecom Kenya and combining Wi Fi technology and metropolitan optical fiber network, nuolian can provide cost-effective wireless broadband network services for local residents. The charges range from 20 KSHS per hour, 70 KSHS per day, 350 KSHS per week to 1000 KSHS per month. There is no restriction on traffic, and the network speed can reach 8 megabits per second. At the same time, nuolian center also has nuolian school, which allows local children aged 5 to 15 to receive distance education free of charge through the network platform.
Xie Wukui, deputy general manager of ctmea business branch of China Telecom Kenya company, still remembers the scene when he first met with the representative of nuolian company. "In the summer of 2018, I went on a business trip from Kenya to the United Arab Emirates. At an online meeting on demand communication, I met Norian team and learned their vision and practice in Africa for the first time. Since then, China Telecom Kenya team began to work together with Norian company, continue to carry out various cooperation and get involved with Norian Internet Center project."
Xie Wukui told reporters that different from meeting customers' own information construction needs, nuolian Internet Center project is to establish network infrastructure. The project is oriented to end users and has a vision of benefiting the people and huge development space. "The Internet Center project has developed well. While helping customers achieve success, China Telecom will continue to gain more success."
Therefore, at the beginning of the project, China Telecom and nuolian company had in-depth running in in all links such as planning and design, equipment procurement, installation, operation and maintenance. "China Telecom hopes that customers can make overall planning and design and use the latest technology to carry out the project. From the beginning, nuolian's team is rooted in the community and looks for the most suitable way to promote the project in practice. The customization and flexibility requirements of the project also promote the rapid growth of the Telecom team, so that the telecom team can quickly adjust and integrate into nuolian's front-line team, We will make use of the operation experience and technical advantages of Telecom to jointly promote the project forward, "Xie Wukui said.
At the beginning of 2020, nuolian center was officially launched. In April this year, the first distance classroom of nuolian school officially opened. "In the first class, we invited two African college student volunteers to tell the children their study experience. They told them that knowledge can change their destiny. After the activity, some children summarized the harvest of this class as' hard work pace ', saying that they must get good returns through hard study and work, which is like a seed buried in the soil "In the future, they will certainly be able to get a better life through their own efforts," Zhou Tao said.
Up to now, nuolian has developed 65000 registered broadband users in the densely populated areas of jisulai District 44 and jinmanmen District in Nairobi, and the conversion rate of new users is 40%. "We hope to take advantage of the east wind of China Africa cooperation to extend low-cost but high-quality network services to many low-income families in Africa, so that Africa can better connect with China and the world," Zhou Tao said.
For China Telecom, the success of Norian project is only a silhouette of the company's development in Africa over the years. Since coming to Africa for more than ten years, China Telecom has been actively based on local business in the African continent, integrated into the local operator ecosystem, and signed strategic cooperation agreements with many mainstream operators in Africa. At present, China Telecom has nearly 500 Internet partners in Africa, and has introduced strategic investors such as the China Africa Development Fund to focus on Africa's concerns, vigorously support the development of "digital Africa", and actively participate in the construction of information society in African countries and regions with the help of rich Internet resources in China and the Asia Pacific and strong ecosystem integration capacity, One belt, one road to promote the local people's livelihood project, to join the community cultural construction and public welfare undertakings, and to benefit more African people through digital epidemic prevention, online education and community China Unicom, and to fully demonstrate the responsibilities and responsibilities of overseas Chinese funded enterprises, so that the world can see the friendly interaction and cultural integration of China with other countries and regions under the "one belt and one road" initiative. A vivid case of win-win cooperation.
Source: China trade news reporter Liu Yusong (picture provided by nuolian Network Technology Co., Ltd.)
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