The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has the potential to fall apart as lack of investment in the electric power generation and renewable energy sectors continue to undermine the organization’s efforts. The organization had unveiled a plan last year, approved by African ministers, to educate and provide ICT skills.
Growth is stifled as NEPAD planned to equip schools in Africa with computers to promote e-learning, but computerization in rural areas is often hindered as there is no connection to the national grid. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said last week that Zimbabwe will not be able to connect schools in rural areas to the e-learning program due to lack of power from the national grid. "The program will only be rolled out in 600 secondary schools in urban areas and will not be extended to rural areas because some schools are not electrified," Mugabe told a council of ministers earlier this month.
The initial phase of the e-schools project was launched in 11 African countries including South Africa, Egypt, Rwanda, Mauritius, Uganda and Senegal in 2003 after African presidents approved the plan.
After a successful trial, NEPAD through its e-Africa Commission based in Johannesburg, South Africa, extended the project to cover all of Africa. NEPAD hoped that by 2015, the project would cover around 600,000 schools on the entire continent. Each school is supposed to be equipped with a computer laboratory containing at least 20 computers, a server and network infrastructure, as well as peripherals such as scanners, whiteboards, and printers.