One wonders what could happen when lots of time, effort and a total sum of N2,270,000 is expended on an initiative aimed at providing children in Gbara Community School, Lagos State with access to knowledge and resources on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This project, tagged Closing the Digital Divide, was initiated and executed by Access Bank’s employee volunteers in the Bank’s Information Technology department. 

Without doubt, the initiative afforded the students the advantage of computer and internet resources as students in the most affluent areas of the Nigerian society. Closing the Digital Divide will also hopefully continue to aid learning and intellectual development among the male and female students of Gbara Community School.

The Access Bank I.T. team also developed a 52-week roster to ensure weekly visits to the school to tutor students on the practical aspects of computer applications while also conducting routine maintenance of the hardware units.

Being fully conscious of the fact that a lot of information and content on the web are unsuitable for children of that age group, the team deployed internet firewalls on the computer systems to block access to X-rated sites. Hopefully, within the coming years, several hundreds of students will have been adequately exposed to the theoretical and practical aspects of computer education.