:Title:    Rural ICT Union
:Author:   Ben Parkinson
:Date:     Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:25:35 PST
:URL:      http://www.ned.com/group/nigeria/news/1/

This is an interesting idea that we have developed since I arrived here in Kaduna.  It is a blend of two (or more) ideas, which are I think complementary.

Essentially, the strategy for cooperatives is to gradually increase their size by merging them into "unions", so that they have a higher capacity for investment and also have a greater level of expertise and variety of products.

The main ICT problem in the rural areas is electricity, but also the cost of PCs and internet bandwidth.  So this project combines the development of unions with training on how to use the internet to access national and international markets with a solar-powered internet development centre (IDC) provided by Inveneo (hardy and very low power consumption).

Although some funding might be needed for the initial purchase, the centre can be made sustainable if it is linked and handed over to a large cooperative to run, with support for at least a year in cybercafe management and technical support.

We would want to add the telecentre-style functionality too, as these IDCs are based in areas where education facilities are ill-equipped, but again these IDCs can be used to tackle low educational resources too. 

I would certainly be interested in people's feedback on feasibility and whether this type of cooperative "linking" has been tried before.