Digital Inclusion: CITAD, Others Handover N26m Hello World Hub To Jama’are Community

BY KHALID IDRIS DOYA, Bauchi

Digital hub worth N26 million was weekend handed-over to Jama’are Community in Bauchi state by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in its technology drive to include over 27 million Nigerians into internet access.

To this end, the centre Executive Director, Yunusa Zakari Ya’u said, has vowed to establish twenty (20) Digital Community Hubs (DCHs) across the country as part of its efforts to promote digital inclusion in the country.

Speaking at the handing over of Hello World Digital Hub to Jama’are community in Jama’are local government area of Bauchi state, the CITAD Director, Yunusa Zakari Ya’u said that there have been people in Nigeria who were left behind digitally.

He explained that there are four organizations that worked on the Jama’are hub that included, association for progressive communication (APC), 48%, CITAD and Hello World which is a global organization that has been building hubs across the world, not not in Nigeria that conceptualised itself as a model to be identified as a done.

He revealed, “In fact, statistics from the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) indicate that there are 27.1 million Nigerians who are living in areas where there is no access to Internet service”.

Director Yunusa Zakari Yau however explained that the internet is a right and necessary thing for every citizen to have, saying “So we are making efforts to make sure that the internet is not only available, but also affordable to people”.

He added, “That’s why we just established this community hub where citizens of this community will come and access the Internet freely. CITAD is championing the activities in Nigeria, not only in Bauchi state.”

Ya’u who disclosed that the Jama’are is the second hub after the one in Abuja, also revealed that between now and December this year there would be 20 of the hubs across different parts of the country.

“The cost implications of the Jama’are hub is that we bought the laptops, equipment, pay for the internet for full one year, but community also contributed with some resources in terms of erecting the structure, buying cement and blocks and so forth, but for the individual, he or she has nothing to pay as regard handset or computer or data for the allotted period”.

Yau said that it was Hello World that designed the dome – 48 percent and made contributions in terms of some equipment that included solar and network, while the association for progressive communication (APC) has been a long standing partner of CITAD.

“As a matter of fact, APC is a coalition of mainly Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of which CITAD is actually a member of APC. So, when we say APC actually is CITAD there”.

He further explained that Jama’are community will use the facility in accordance with the rules set out by the committee saddled with the responsibility to manage the hub which is billed to accommodate 200 users at same time.

According to him, the USPF has done research and mapped out what it called unserved and under-served communities and came out with a count of 96 clusters of communities across the country where they would have access to internet, as he put the Jama’are Hub cost implication to N26 million.

Also speaking at the occasion, the national coordinator, community national network CITAD Project, Haruna Adamu Hadejia however cried out the raging inflationary trend in the country which the project is experiencing in terms of establishing the proposed 20 hubs in Nigeria.

Hadejia said, “So we experiences these type of differentials in terms of costings. Just last two months, we are in Abuja where we built the first hub and the money that we spent there, I don’t want say it double now, but it trace like 1.89 percent out of two percent now, so you can see how the market is misbehaving”.