West Africa’s leading connectivity and data center solutions provider, MainOne, has advised Africa’s Research and Education Networks (RENs) not to relent in its effort to improve the region’s research and educational capability through collaborations with MainOne and other innovative technology solutions providers, reports Ghana Web.
The company’s Business Executive for Francophone West Africa and Ghana, Kazeem Oladepo made this call at the recently concluded annual conference for the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN), held in Accra, Ghana.
Speaking during the bylines of the conference, Oladepo stressed the importance of technology, not only for technology’s sake but as a tool, a means to an end; for strengthening alliance amongst the academic community and optimizing operational efficiency that will enhance digital inclusion in the region.
Highlighting some of the challenges associated with research and education in Africa, Oladepo urged the RENs in attendance to go beyond networks and infrastructure, but to seek partnerships that will ensure that additional applications and services integrated into the networks through cost effective shared data center and value added solutions offered by MainOne.
According to him, by harmonizing infrastructure, services and bandwidth solutions, RENs can introduce massive improvements in education, leveraging Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support availability of open educational resources, introduce correspondence courses and foster MOOC tradition and democratizing the learning experience.
Oladepo commended the resolve of WACREN to connect regional researchers to the global research and education communities across the world and reiterated MainOne’s commitment to providing the platform that will continue to enable all Research and Educational institutions in West Africa to interconnect within themselves and to the rest of the world, via high-capacity data networks, cloud and colocation solutions.
Under the AfricaConnect2 programme and a contract with WACREN, MainOne provides high-speed internet services to schools, colleges and universities, research and the general academic community across West and Central Africa. The company delivered WACREN’s first connectivity solution in the region with the connection of London, Lagos and Accra Ghana, were the services have since been launched in 2018.
MainOne is poised to extend the network to other regions in 2019 with the ongoing build of its subsea system into Dakar (Senegal) and Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) in the 4th quarter of year 2019. MainOne is also the preferred provider of connectivity solutions to 20+ tertiary institutions across West and Central Africa, helping to canvass regional goal for research and innovation as impetus for digital economy growth in West Africa.
The event brought together different stakeholders in the Research and Education sector from over 15 countries to foster and formulate best standards and practices in continually improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the WACREN.