Cisco Sponsors ICT Program to South African Schools

As part of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI (News - Alert)), Cisco is committed to advance the concept of connected communities to alleviate poverty across sub-Saharan Africa. To keep to its commitment, Cisco (News - Alert), along with its non-profit partners recently sponsored the launch of 15 community knowledge centers in South Africa.

All 15 centers will offer the Cisco Networking Academy program in order to address the shortage of information and communications technology (ICT) skills in underserved areas of South Africa. Networking Academy has been designed to provide ICT skills to students around the world to improve their career and economic opportunities.

Networking academies operate in high schools, colleges, universities, technical and military schools, and community-based organizations.

The program was officially launched at a ceremony held in Gauteng. Among the luminaries present were Gauteng Minister for Health and Social Development Lenthen Ntombi Mekgwe, Ekurhuleni Executive Mayor Mondli Gungubele and Cisco South Africa General Manager David Meads.

In a press release, the global networking giant said it collaborated with Inveneo (News - Alert) to bring in the technology in the form of computers and networking equipment.

It also partnered with One Global Economy to install a Web portal that will contain local information.

And in conjunction with AppleSeeds Academy and One Global Economy, Cisco sponsored the training of the managers for the centers to make them relevant, sustainable and viable for the local communities.

As part of CGI initiative, Cisco works with existing and new international, regional and local nonprofit agencies as well as uses a broad range of resources, including cash grants, product grants and technical assistance. Cisco actively participates in the initiative by volunteering for the Cisco-sponsored projects.

As part of CGI, Cisco is committed to invest $10 million in six countries in Africa, namely: South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Nigeria. Cisco started the community center initiative in Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa, and this will be replicated in the remainder of these countries.

In November last year, Cisco launched next-generation telecommunications transport network, the Cisco Cloud Carrier Packet Transport (CPT) System, TMCnet reported.

The solution, according to Cisco, is most suitable for migrating service provider transport infrastructures for supporting next-generation Internet Protocol (IP)-based services like video, mobility and cloud computing. It synergizes the advantages of both transport network and packet technology to deliver current and future services.