Orange and the German Cooperation have inaugurated an “Orange Digital Center” in Bamako, an ecosystem that is set to develop the digital skills and innovation
Working as a network, the Orange Digital Centres allow experiences and expertise to be shared between countries and offer a simple and inclusive approach to improve young people's employability, encourage innovative entrepreneurship and promote the local digital ecosystem.
Moreover, discussions are underway between Orange Mali and the Ministry of Higher Education for the digital transformation of universities in Mali. An Orange Digital Center Club will be installed in each university in the region, thus completing the system to give as many people possible access to new technologies and support in using them to their full extent.
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility approach, Orange Mali wishes to support new ideas, which bring progress for all and in particular those that create economic value and jobs at the local level. This is why Orange Mali wanted to set up and support, in a partnership-based approach, initiatives that help accelerate this positive change.
Orange and the German Cooperation by GIZ are working together as part of a development partnership within the develoPPP programme, which GIZ is implementing on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The goal is to fulfil their shared vision: fostering youth employability – and access to ICT jobs for women and girls - while supporting sustainable growth and the country's digital transformation.
So far, eight Orange Digital Centers have already been opened in the region: Tunisia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Jordan, Morocco, and Mali. This means other inaugurations are still to come in 2021.
Alioune Ndiaye, chairman and CEO of Orange Africa and the Middle East, said, “The main objective is to democratise access to digital technology for young people – with or without qualifications – giving them access to the latest technological trends to improve their employability and give young Africans the ability to write their digital future.”
Elizabeth Tchoungui, executive director of CSR, diversity and philanthropy at Orange, deputy chair of the Orange Foundation, added, “The FabLab Solidaire, a key programme of the Orange Foundation, is an essential building block of this socially useful action, by allowing beneficiaries without access to digital tools to reconnect with the professional world. It is the start of a great journey based on the development of technical skills and can even help to create innovative companies thanks to the complementary nature of the actions deployed.”
