As Oracle we are a proud participant in this public-private partnership to bring this dream closer to Africa's youth, through the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration Project. This phase within the wider roll-out is meant to form a database of information that will ensure that we as the private sector and NEPAD have the real experience to implement the full initiative.

As of now Oracle and its partners (Sentech, Mecer, Fujitsu-Siemens Computers, Xerox, Multichoice Africa, Ses-Astra, DHL, Learnthings Africa, Evalunet, Markbook, Intel and Cambridge-Hitachi) have kitted up schools in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Gabon and South Africa. There are other consortia of this nature also implementing the same project, reaffirming our belief that ICT with the Internet will definitely lead to increased development in Africa and will shorten the digital divide.

So when your article asks is there hope, Oracle and its partners answer with a resounding YES!!!

Kind Regards

Nyasha Mutsekwa, Project Manager, Oracle Consortium e-Schools