HCL Info wins Pan-Africa e-network project

New Delhi: HCL Infosystems has bagged the mandate to implement IT infrastructure in a Pan-Africa project that aims to connect 53 African countries into one network, providing electronic and knowledge connectivity to the nations.

An initiative by Indian Government to share its expertise in the fields of education and medicine, the network would benefit the African nations by providing tele-education, tele-medicine, video-conferencing and VoIP services. The size of the project that HCL would implement stands at about $23 million.

“Facilitating education and knowledge sharing, the network will connect 7 universities from India with 5 universities from Africa; the African centres will further be linked to one centre in each of 53 countries within the continent. The network will also connect 12 super specialty hospitals from India with 5 from Africa. These hospitals in Africa will further be linked to one remote hospital (patient-end locations) in each of the 53 countries as part of the project to extend healthcare services to rural Africa,” an HCL release said here.

The project will support the growth and development of African countries, it added.

According to Mr George Paul, Executive Vice-President of the company, “With three decades of experience in enabling technology and offering integrated ICT solutions for vast urban and sub-urban tracts in India, HCL Infosystems has taken IT to the remotest part of India. HCL understands the challenges complex markets like India and Africa face and works towards enabling IT as a means for development.

“This Pan-Africa e-network project is a significant step towards allowing this expertise to benefit African countries in their developmental efforts.”