Less than 25% of Africa’s rural areas have access to reliable electricity supplies, says Samsung Electronics. This affects many individual’s access to basic services such as education and healthcare.
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In this light Samsung has launched its Solar Powered Internet Schools Initiative (SPIS) — independent classrooms that aim to increase accessibility to education and connectivity in remote areas of Africa — at The Dakar Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure, held in Senegal. These SPIS classrooms were actually first launched in 2011 with installations in five African countries namely: SA, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. The announcement at the summit aimed to align Samsung’s African initiatives with infrastructure commitments in Africa.
“The Dakar Summit aims at accelerating the implementation of projects in transport, rail, ports, energy and ICT. Samsung’s Internet school cost-effectively addresses two of these areas, bringing connectivity, electrification and education to rural areas by harnessing the power of the sun,” says Ntutule Tshenye, Head of Public Affairs & Corporate Citizenship, Samsung Electronics Africa.
Tshenye adds that remote areas often have to rely on diesel or petrol-driven generators which are expensive to buy and maintain. He notes that Samsung’s Solar Power Generator is a great alternative which provides access to power at an affordable price, “saving communities on electricity costs, which can be used in other, more important, areas — such as infrastructure.”
Logistically, each SPIS is built in a 12-metre long re-purposed shipping container which helps make them transportable to remote locations. The schools are specifically designed to handle African weather conditions.
Each school is kitted with fold-away rubber solar panels which provide enough energy to power the classroom’s equipment, including electronic whiteboards and Samsung Notebooks and Netbooks. A classroom can reportedly accommodate 24 learners easily.
Furthermore classrooms can be used by community members in the evenings and on weekends to help run small businesses.
The SPIS is part of Samsung’s ‘Built for Africa’ campaign which focuses on developing solutions for Africa’s needs, and its ‘Hope for Children’ initiative which wants to directly impact the lives of five million Africans by 2015.
