Mascom lauded for youth empowerment initiatives
Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday July 8, 2015 15:12
The initiative is driven through the 81 Mascom Kitsong Centres that exist in villages across the country.
Speaking at a Mascom Kitsong Centre workshop held in Gaborone on Monday, Director in the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Cecil Masiga said the workshop signifies that Mascom appreciates that ICT is transforming industries and challenging old notions of how people communicate and collaborate.
“As change accelerates, every business faces the challenge of keeping up the pace. I, therefore, realised that this workshop will help the centres join the networked society and see how ICT will simplify and improve services in their communities,” he said.
According to Masiga, the workshop will open avenues for innovation from the youth adding that if continued annually, there might be improvement in the Kitsong Centre visibility and operational efficiency with smart understanding of the new technologies.
Further, Masiga told participants that they are their own motivation and success factors urging them to be the next linchpins of the ICT industry.
However, Masiga added that he believed the workshop would in future communicate ways to achieve new levels of mobility, connectivity, security and applications in the ever-changing landscape.
The objective of the workshop was to equip the Kitsong Centre operators with Mascom products, new technologies and also share ideas on how these young people may grow their businesses.
For her part, Chief Communications and Public Relations Officer at Mascom Wireless, Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego said during the workshop, the operators would be inducted on a collaboration tool that will help the young business owners to involve each other and gather ideas on what works and how they can assist each other.
“The operators will be engaged in SIM replacements, registration of MyZaka, contractual obligations, reporting, safety and maintenance care also some of the key areas that will be shared during this first ever workshop,” said Lebotse-Sebego.
Mascom has also partnered with an ICT company, Moderate Solutions to launch an online collaboration that will be used by all Kitsong Centres.
The collaboration will help the centres access instant online knowledge and experience sharing by the Kitsong Centres as well as help with the forum capability to facilitate developments of new products and services.
The Mascom Kitsong Centre started as a partnership between Mascom and the Government of Botswana through the Nteletsa II Rural Development Project in 2009. By then, coverage was extended to 41 villages and Kitsong Centres set up in those villages.