The African ICT Foundation last week at the 2019 Gnaoua Festival in Essaouira Morocco made a case for the active use of Assistive Technology for the aging and physically challenged persons, noting that such technology will alleviate the sufferings of the aged and that of people living with disability in Africa and the world in general.
Ms. Lobna Smida, North Africa’s Regional Director, who represented that Foundation and delivered a presentation on a topic “Assistive Technology – Health, well-being and socioeconomic benefits of Assistive Technology for Africans everywhere, stressed on the need for ICT private and public sector’s practitioners to invest on the technology.
“As a Foundation, whose focus is to promote policy solutions that accelerate innovations and boost productivity and progress in the continent ICT ecosystem, we are supporting Assistive Technology because we know it will alleviate the sufferings of the aged and the disabled people,” Lobna said.
She described Assistive technology as a term covering the systems and services related to the delivery of assistive products and services to improve an individual’s functioning and independence, thereby promoting their well-being, hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication aids, spectacles, prostheses, pill organizers and memory aids are all examples of assistive products.
Meanwhile, the African ICT Foundation said its participation at the 22nd edition of the festival is in line with its goal of accelerating ICT penetration in Africa.
Speaking to Newsmen in Lagos, the Executive secretary of the Foundation, Mr. Emmanuel Bassey said: We are so honored to be part of this year’s Gnaoua Festival in Essaouira Morocco. It gives us the opportunity to talk about the need for exploring the richness of our continent’s potentials and the need to collaborate with the whole world to make our actions speak louder than our words.”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), globally, more than 1 billion people need one or more assistive products”. With an aging global population and a rise in non-communicable diseases, more than 2 billion people will need at least one assistive product by 2030 and with many older people needing two or more. Today, only 1 in 10 people in need have access to assistive products.
The African ICT Foundation is an independent not-for-profit, and non-partisan empowerment, educational and research organization whose mission is to formulate, evaluate and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovations and boost productivity, opportunity and progress in the ICT ecosystem.
The Foundation is led by a board of experts in the ICT industry in Africa. It is consist of a team of policy analysts and fellows, which includes authors and recognized experts in the fields of telecommunications, public policy advocacy, economics, tax policy, trade, privacy and cybersecurity.