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Multimedia Communication students Billie Sule and Matthew Baker are spending their placement year establishing the charity ‘IT Kidz of Africa’ which will link with seven primary schools in Nigeria.

The pair will start with at least 60 PCs donated by Bournemouth University, GKN Aerospace, Hamworthy Heating and members of the public. They will deliver the computers and share their IT skills with children in the village of Ijede on the outskirts of Lagos.

20 year old Billie is originally from the region but more recently has lived in the UK. She founded IT Kidz after attending a rally organised by the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship and hopes that her local knowledge combined with her IT skills will make a difference.

“It is very important that we inspire interest from kids as they will shape the face of Africa for the future,” Billie continues. “As computer literacy and internet technologies on the continent increase so will prospects for the future in markets such as e-commerce transforming the economic prospects for all concerned.”

23 year old Matt hasn’t visited Africa before but is looking forward to the experience of travelling and sharing what he’s learning at University.

“During one of our lectures, we were given statistics about internet usage in Africa which is well down as opposed to the rest of the world. It’s quite a culture shock to think that so many people don’t have access to computers so IT Kidz gives us an opportunity to help bridge that gap, even if only in a small way.”