Schoolchildren in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are to benefit from IT equipment donated by electronic tendering specialist Millstream.
The company has donated 13 unwanted computer monitors to UK charity IT Schools Africa, which refurbishes working IT equipment and then ships it to African schools.
Millstream responded to an urgent appeal by the charity for flatscreen monitors, which will be used by hundreds of youngsters.
Tim Williams, managing director of Millstream, said: “IT is a vital part of the work we do, sourcing and publishing public sector tenders and sending daily email alerts on relevant business opportunities to suppliers in the private sector.
“There is no effective way to keep track of all the opportunities without using an online system so we rely on computers and technology every day.
“We are therefore pleased to have been able to support a number of schools in Africa by donating our unwanted monitors, which will be put to great use helping children to gain essential IT skills, greatly enhancing their job prospects and benefiting the local economies.”
IT Schools Africa has active programmes in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Simon Richardson from IT Schools Africa said: “Every single used computer and monitor which is donated to ITSA in the UK has immense value in Africa. We hope to extend the average lifespan of the equipment that ITSA sends to Africa by at least five years.
“Since 2004, we have sent over 40,000 computers and monitors to Africa, equipped more than 1,500 schools with computer labs and trained over 750 teachers. We reckon to have given access to IT to at least 3million children.
“We would like to encourage more businesses, schools and other organisations to consider donating their surplus computers, monitors and other IT equipment to help us to continue to transform IT education in Africa and help create positive, promising futures for African schoolchildren.”
Millstream runs the Tenders Direct and myTenders websites, which provide private companies with tender information on new business opportunities in the public sector.
More than 4,000 clients use Tenders Direct to ensure they receive manually personalised alerts on tender opportunities, including low value tenders – generally less than £100,000 - which offer particularly lucrative opportunities for SMEs.
myTenders is a tender publication and management service used by more than 700 public organisations to submit contract notices to the OJEU and Contracts Finder.
Millstream also runs procurement websites for Scotland (Public Contracts Scotland) and Wales (Sell2Wales) and recently launched a Norwegian service, myTenders Norge, after running the national portal for the Norwegian government for eight years.