Absa is supporting the government’s digital agenda through the donation of Sh25 million computer laboratories to primary and secondary schools.
It is targeting all 47 counties in partnership with Computer for Schools to enhance digital literacy.
Absa managing director Abdi Mohamed on Saturday said the bank believes in working with communities.
“Over the last couple of years, we have done quite a number of activities in the area of education, where we work with the communities to try and improve the education standards in different areas,” he said.
The MD spoke at NEP Girls' High School in Garissa, while officially opening a computer lab.
The bank aims to fully equip and furnish 70 computer labs in select primary and secondary schools across the country.
The project has so far benefited 63 schools, impacting 63,000 students.
Each school receives a computer lab consisting of 20 fully networked desktop computers and desks and tables for lab furniture, all fully fitted with the relevant software.
“One of our key focus areas is to help students and schools improve computer literacy,” he said.
“In the technology field, having the right infrastructure entails providing the hardware, and providing computers is a very important part of what needs to be done.”
He said the fully kitted modern computer lab will not only go along in improving computer literacy but also improve their capability to research and to help the students prepare themselves for exams.
He said outside of the education programme, they also have climate related programmes, where they work on the environment as well as supporting SMEs.
He said that as an organisation, they have set themselves a target of planting 10 million trees by 2025, and the progress has been good so far.
“As a financial institution that is one of the largest banks in the country, we believe that we have the responsibility to work with the communities and stakeholders to improve livelihoods,” he said.
“We also need to make it easier for some of our young students and children to succeed in the future. So we are very proud of what we are doing here today.”
He urged the students to remain focused, disciplined and work hard together as a team and with their teachers, parents and the school administration to ensure that that they continuously lift the performance of the school.
NEP Girls principal Ahmed Aden said the project will go a long way in helping learning in the school.
“With the availability of improved infrastructure on ICT, we believe a good number of students will develop interest in this subject,” he said.
“We believe that the lab will not only help learning but it will also help the teachers do their research.”
He said education nowadays emphasises on ICT integration, and so without ICT, they cannot complete their work.
“It will go along way in enhancing the performance of these children,” Aden said.
“So with the support of Absa Bank, I believe we will actually reach our milestone.”
Sumeya Ali, a Form 2 student studying computers, said that initially, it was difficult for them to improve their computer literacy due to the few computers.
With an increased number, things will change, she said.
“This is a great milestone for us as students of NEP. This computer lab will greatly improve our skills. We already had the dream but thank God it will now be actualised,” Ali said.
Her fellow student Shamim Mohamed said her dream of pursuing a course in software engineer at the university has started.
“By the time I finish high school, I will have the basic computer skills that are important in the course,” she said.