Mascom bridges digital divide

| Thursday September 1, 2011 00:00

 

Mascom has been working closely with the Village Development Committees (VDC's) and the villages leadership of the various villages to identify young people and a total of 23 of hopefuls have been identified.

The 23 potential entrepreneurs are currently being trained and up-skilled in collaboration Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) and Modi Investments. The training undertaken is on Entrepreneurship Development, ICT and Mascom Product Knowledge.

From the 23 potential entrepreneurs trained, 10 will be selected to operate a Mascom Kitsong Centre in their village. Mascom will continue providing support to all the Mascom Kitsong Centres countrywide to a point where they are sustainable and self-sufficient.

In a statement the company it realises the impact that this initiative can have on Batswana and the youth in particular and has taken a deliberate step to invest in this project and rollout Mascom Kitsong Centers in different parts of the country every year.  From the  total of 51 Kitsong and Community Access Centres  put up countrywide 16  are operated by Village Development Committees , two by Parents & Teachers Association Committee another  two by Primary School and 21 operated by youth selected from the respective villages

Licenced in February 1998, Mascom is the leading mobile telecommunications operator in Botswana.

As at December 2010, Mascom had a subscriber base in excess of 1.4million giving it a market share of just over 53 percent of the Botswana mobile telecoms market.