Software giant Microsoft is to launch a huge programme to recycle computers, which will be reconditioned, reprogrammed with its software and redistributed in Africa, a company official said on Monday.
“Between now and 2010, a billion computers should be recycled worldwide and Africa can take advantage of half of them,” said Cheick Modibo Diarra, president of Microsoft Africa.
The plan will be carried out in partnership with the United Nations with the aim of making easier access in Africa to new technologies of information and communication (NTICs), he said.
Microsoft will recover unwanted computers and hand them over to small- and medium-sized businesses and industries in Africa, which will recondition them and install Microsoft software, he said.
The plan would create jobs in Africa, he said. It was not specified whether the computers would be for sale or would be made available free.
The project would cost Microsoft several tens of millions of dollars, since a recycled computer is worth between $25 and $90, said Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International.
“We are going to help, over the 15 years to come, the transformation of the education system by giving a wider access everywhere in Africa to NTICs, especially in schools” and by promoting “local talent”, he said.
“In the 15 years of our presence en Africa we have trained 200 000 teachers, who have trained in their turn 23-million students, and we aim to double that figure in next 15 years,” Courtois said.
He added that Microsoft was going to translate its operating system into African languages.
“Eighty percent of people on the continent cannot read or write English or French but they have a right of access to NTICs and to be able to make use of them.” — AFP