Zain Ghana has partnered with Ericsson, the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators to join the Millennium Cities Initiatives (MCI) and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to provide high speed internet access to 18 schools in the Kumasi Metropolis. Representatives from each of the partnering companies; Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, the Co-Founder of the MCI, Hon. Samuel Sarpong, the Mayor of Kumasi, Chris Gabriel, the CEO for Zain Africa and Emmanuel Mensah-Baah, Ericsson Account Manager were at a ceremony to sign a memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Opoku Ware High School. CEO of Zain Africa Chris Gabriel, who was speaking at the launch, noted that “the success of our partnership with Ericsson and the MVP in providing high speed internet access to villages in the throes of poverty has led us to sign this MOU today. We made a difference to the residents of those villages and it is our hope that through improving the students’ access to improved education, we can also make a difference to the lives of children living in cities." The schools-to-school partnership project is part of the Millennium Cities Initiative, an urban counterpart of the Millennium Villages Project. Both projects are aimed at assisting selected regions in sub Saharan African countries in their efforts to reach their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Overall, eighteen basic schools selected from the Nhyiaso, Bantama and Oforikrom sub metro in the Ashanti Region will be supplied with computers from the KMA, Fixed Wireless Terminals from Ericsson with Zain providing the network connectivity at a huge subsidized rate and technical support to the schools. The company hopes that by the end of April, all 18 schools will have internet connectivity. Meanwhile, Opoku Ware Secondary school and their teachers are the first to benefit from this scheme. Myjoyonline.com/Ghana