Technology
Digital Inclusion: What Does Equal Access to Education Mean in the Digital Age?
By Zohra Yermeche
The COVID-19 crisis and the impact, which it has had on learning across the world, has highlighted many of the digital disparities which exist in today’s world.
At a time when many of the world’s students shifted from physical to digital, we were also faced with the hard truth that today there are still 3.6 billion people in the world who are unconnected.
For students in the connected half of the world, the story is much different. While 1.2 billion children were affected by school closures across much of the world, our recent Consumer COVID-19 report found that students were able to substitute physical learning by spending 230 per cent more time on digital learning tools such as Google Class, Epic! and Seesaw Class.
This of course is a significant rise, but it is also an acceleration of a trend which we have steadily been tracking since our first Connect To Learn program exactly ten years ago.
The State of Broadband 2020 report estimates that there are twice as many people today who use the Internet compared to 2010. This rise in digital literacy, together with the imminent period of rapid digitalization of the economy, means that ensuring fair and equal access to both education and future job markets will rest on the extent of digital inclusion within our societies.
What is digital inclusion and why is it so important today?
Today, technology plays a much bigger role in the quality and scope of how we learn, such as new digital learning platforms which are estimated to reach $350 billion by 2025; what we learn, with a growing emphasis on programming, robotics, AI and automation; and how we can use it in the job market, with digital skillsets increasingly becoming a prerequisite of tomorrow’s workforce.
The changes which are happening today show the disparity between the developed and undeveloped world. If you are not connected, that shows you the leap which you have to make between the connectivity aspect, access to education and benefits which are derived from that.
Closing this digital divide, with those who are not connected or not considered to be digitally literate, is imperative to ensuring a fair distribution of digital opportunities across countries, locations, gender, socioeconomic status, and age.
Access to education in the digital age
In 2010, we co-founded the Connect To Learn initiative with the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Millennium Promise, with a focus on delivering connectivity and ICT tools to enhance teaching and learning in unconnected, underprivileged and largely unrepresented communities.
Since our first projects in the Millennium Villages, we’ve helped to connect and increase the digital inclusion of more than 200,000 students worldwide. As the program has evolved, we have increased our efforts to close the digital divide not just in terms of connectivity, but from a content, syllabus and platform side which is fundamental.
As a technology company, we quickly discovered that we can offer so much more than connectivity, but furthermore can help improve learning processes and methodologies so learning can become more impactful. For example, through partnerships with like-minded organizations, we have helped to digitalize and disseminate content through digital learning tools such as mobile apps.
One of the biggest differences from ten years ago is also that the nature of technology in an educational context, both as a medium and a means to enter the job market was still relatively immature as the landscape has evolved, we’ve come to understand the need to personalize and individualize learning so that we can improve learning outcomes in a meaningful way.
Giving people access to the right type of content is one aspect, another equally critical aspect is the human element. On top of the digital layer, students will still always need the engagement, inspiration and activation that comes from teachers and trainers who know about the topic. I believe that, even in the digital age, technology will never be able to replace this interaction, but rather can serve as an increasingly innovative medium for those critical learner-instructor interactions, such as through the Internet of Skills.
Digital inclusion through public-private partnerships
Today, there is a significant need for digital skills courses. Key technology areas such as AI, robotics and app development are advancing at such a rapid pace, which can make it difficult to ensure an effective transfer of competence to emerging workforces.
Such is the pace of change for topics such as these, public academic institutions will invariably struggle to take learning beyond a basic theoretical level. Public-private partnerships will therefore be key to addressing this, by developing advanced curriculums and delivering the necessary quality and scale of access.
As a sustainability pioneer in the private sector, we’ve understood the power of partnership, which is why we’re investing heavily in building out those partnerships with like-minded entities to create sustainable solutions in order to address the issues which the education sector faces today. A good example of this is the Ericsson Digital Lab program which is now live in several countries in partnership with local schools and community learning centres. The aim here is to share those competences that we have in-house on a much broader scale, addressing those critical skillset demands which are needed in tomorrow’s workforce.
This year, in response to the impact which COVID-19 has had on learning, we continuing these efforts by joining the UNESCO-led Global Education Coalition, launching Ericsson Educate and partnering with UNICEF to map school connectivity as part of the Giga project.
Through digital methodologies, and with a focus on improving digital skills for students across all communities, our commitment is to ensure that future generations continue to have the skills and knowledge to find opportunity in a changing digital world. This was what we set out to do when we launched Connect To Learn ten years ago, and this will continue to be our priority in this next critical decade of action.
Zohra Yermeche is the Program Director for Connect To Learn at Ericsson
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian tech firms attracted just $100 million in funding in the first quarter of 2025, raising worries about investment crunch into Africa.
This is part of a wider slowdown in funding on the continent as funding into the African tech ecosystem dropped 5 per cent to $460 million in the first quarter of 2025, according to data by Africa: The Big Deal.
The decline shows the consistent drop in venture capital funding on the continent, which fell from $486 million raised in the same period of 2024,
The data insight firm, which tracks funding rounds of $100,000 and above, revealed that nearly $300 million was raised by start-ups in January, and fell to $119 million in February.
March saw one of the lowest monthly totals since late 2020, with just $50 million in funding announced.
The Big Deal noted that despite a steady number of start-ups securing funding, the lack of deals exceeding $10 million significantly impacted overall investment figures.
“Q1 2025 is the second-lowest quarter in terms of start-up funding since late 2020,” the insight company noted.
“However, things are looking more positive if we focus on the number of start-ups that announced at least $1 million in funding during the quarter, with 52 such deals aligning with the 2023-2024 average,” a post seen by Business Post showed.
Nigeria alongside Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt – referred to as the Big Four – got 83 per cent of funding during the period under review.
Nigeria attracted roughly over $100 million in funding (24 per cent), same as Kenya (24 per cent) and followed closely by South Africa with $100 million (22 per cent).
Egypt secured $61 million (14 per cent), while Togo emerged as a surprise entry in the top five, buoyed by Gozem’s $30 million Series B funding round.
Fintech remained the dominant sector, accounting for nearly half (46 per cent) of total investment, the report disclosed with deals including LemFi’s $53 million raise and Naked’s $38 million.
The energy sector followed with an 18 per cent share of the total funding, while logistics and transportation startups secured 10 per cent.
It raised eye brows over the disparity in gender based funding with just over 2 per cent ($10 million) of Q1 funding went to female CEOs.
The largest such deal being a $6.2 million grant awarded to South African biotech firm, African Biologics.
Excluding grant funding, female-led start-ups accounted for a mere 0.7 per cent of all investments while in contrast, Big Deal added that 79 per cent of total funding went to either solo male founders (11 per cent) or all-male founding teams (67 per cent).
It revealed that diverse founding teams attracted 20 per cent of the investment, this remains a modest improvement compared to previous quarters.
“A mere 1% was invested in solo female founders or female-only teams,” the report said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Digital infrastructure company, Equinix Incorporated, has officially opened its latest data center expansion in Lagos as part of efforts to advancing Nigeria’s position in the global digital economy.
Called LG2.3, the facility will support Nigeria’s growing digital transformation efforts, providing state-of-the-art colocation and secure interconnection solutions which will empower businesses across the region.
Nigeria is targeting 200MW data capacity but it so far generates less than 70 MW and with more data center springing up in the country, this will bring further the target to fruition.
Equinix, which is one of these firms, said it is steadfast in its mission to enable secure, scalable, and sustainable digital growth for economies across the world.
Speaking at the inauguration, Mr Bruce Owen, President of EMEA at Equinix, said Nigeria is a crucial market for Equinix, adding that it symbolises Equinix’s continued investment in sustainable initiatives across the globe and highlighting the company’s broader goal of reducing its carbon footprint while supporting greener practices across its operations worldwide.
“Today’s opening is a clear demonstration of our continued commitments to invest and grow digital infrastructure that will benefit the many thousands of businesses in Nigeria and on the continent as a whole. I am deeply encouraged by the enthusiastic partnerships and innovations emerging from this dynamic region, which continue to inspire our commitment to Nigeria’s digital and sustainable future.”
On his part, Mr Wole Abu, Managing Director of Equinix West Africa, highlighted the critical role of data centers in driving economic growth.
“Data centers continue to play a pivotal role in driving economic development in Nigeria, serving as critical infrastructure that supports digital transformation and economic growth. As governments and enterprises increasingly acknowledge their significance, global demand for data center capacity is poised to rise.
“While Africa’s demand for data solutions is still evolving compared to more mature markets, the continent is demonstrating strong potential for digital adoption and innovation. To meet this growing need, Equinix is actively advancing three major data center projects in Nigeria, with future expansion plans for Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and South Africa.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
Artificial Intelligence (AI) company, OpenAI, on Monday announced that it closed one of the largest private funding rounds in history to boost AI research.
According to a blog post on the company’s website, OpenAI raised $40 billion in a round that values the company at $300 billion.
Japan’s SoftBank led the round, with other participants including Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive, all of which are earlier backers in the outfit.
OpenAI said it plans to use the fresh capital to “push the frontiers of AI research even further” and scale its compute infrastructure, according to the blog post.
“[This new capital] enables us to push the frontiers of AI research even further, scale our compute infrastructure, and deliver increasingly powerful tools for the 500 million people who use ChatGPT every week,” OpenAI wrote in the blog post.
“We’re excited to be working in partnership with SoftBank Group — few companies understand how to scale transformative technology like they do.”
About $18 billion of the funding is expected to be used for OpenAI’s commitment to Stargate.
Recall that the joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle was announced by President Donald Trump in January.
The initial funding will be $10 billion, followed by the remaining $30 billion by the end of 2025, the person said. But the round comes with a caveat.
SoftBank said in an updated disclosure that its total investment could be slashed to as low as $20 billion if OpenAI doesn’t restructure into a for-profit entity by December 31.
This come amid pressure on OpenAI to pull off the for-profit conversion, a plan that will need the blessing of Microsoft and the California Attorney General, and has been challenged in court by Mr Elon Musk, who was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015, when it was started as a non-profit research lab.
The company’s current and unusual hybrid structure includes a capped-profit limited partnership created in 2019. The original nonprofit is the controlling shareholder and would be spun out as an independent entity if the company can restructure.
OpenAI’s venture backers have received convertible notes that would turn into equity.
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