Software giant, Microsoft has decided to empower Richard Appiah Akoto, who teaches information and communication technology (ICT) at Betenase M/A Junior High School in the town of Sekyedomase, about two and half hours drive north of Ghana’s second city, Kumasi.
Microsoft flew him to Singapore to participating in the annual Microsoft Education Exchange, after his picture drawing a Microsoft Word processing window on a blackboard with multi-colored chalk, to teach his students about computers—which the school did not have went viral on social media around the world.
Apart from him being flown abroad for the training, Akoto, including Betenase M/A Junior High School have received the gift of computer from Microsoft partners and other well meaning tech enthusiasts.
A benefactor at UK’s University of Leeds donated a brand new laptop to 33 years old Akoto. This was followed days later by another donation of five desktop computers for the school and the gift of a laptop for Akoto’s personal use by NIIT, a computer training school headquartered in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
The photos of Akoto drawing a Microsoft Word processing window on a blackboard with multi-colored chalk gained prominence after a popular Ghanaian comedian, who is also a teacher shared it with his 140,000 Facebook fans and later picked up by international websites and tech enthusiasts on the continent.