NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (“NetDragon” or “the Company”) (Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, is excited to announce that it signed the Memorandum of Cooperation for “N-Power Junior Smart Classroom Cooperation” and the Framework Agreement for “Initiative of Digital Education in Africa-Nigeria (IDEA-Nigeria) Cooperation” with Nigeria at the Digital Maritime Silk Road Sub-forum of the 2nd Digital China Summit. Dr. Xiong Li, CEO of NetDragon, and Mr. Ife Adebayo, Special Assistant on Innovation and Entrepreneurship to the Nigerian Vice President, participated in the signing ceremony.
According to the agreement, Nigeria plans to purchase 10,000 smart classrooms from NetDragon, and NetDragon will assist in Nigeria’s construction of the “Three Platforms and One Centre” – national education resources public service platform, national teaching community network platform, national digital talent training platform and national future education experience centre, in order to help Nigeria accelerate the development of digital education and improve basic education, lifelong education and future education in African countries.
As the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria’s human capital is a significant advantage to its development, and education is an essential element to leverage this advantage. At present, Nigeria is facing problems such as shortage of educational resources and infrastructure, and lower-than-international-standard student enrolment rates. In this context, Nigerian Government established the “N-Power Project” to enhance the scientific knowledge and skills of children, adolescents and youth in the country.
NetDragon will assist Nigeria in the development of the “N-Power Project”. Nigerian Government plans to purchase 10,000 smart classrooms from NetDragon. The smart classrooms will be equipped with NetDragon’s flagship educational products and platform resources, including Promethean interactive panel, 101 Education PPT, VR Mysticraft, Edmodo, JumpStart games and Coding Galaxy. This project is expected to benefit 500,000 K-12 students in the country.
NetDragon’s newly developed digital education product, the Pop-up Classroom, also attracted the attention of the Nigerian Government. Pop-up Classroom is a container-sized classroom which is easily transported, mobilized and assembled/disassembled. It can be ready for use in just a few hours. Therefore, it can easily fit in to different circumstances and conditions. Nigerian Government is considering deploying Pop-up Classroom in remote areas, in order to solve Nigeria’s problems of classroom shortage and uneven distribution of educational resources, in a quick, efficient and cost-effective manner.
In recent years, cooperation between China and Africa has entered a new historical phase. With the support of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, NetDragon has launched the “Initiative of Digital Education in African (IDEA)”, which gained full support from African countries like Nigeria and Ghana. Ghana Government also signed a memorandum of cooperation for digital education with NetDragon at the Digital Maritime Silk Road Sub-forum. In this memorandum of cooperation, NetDragon will provide technical support to the development of future education in Ghana. By focusing on the construction of “Three Platforms and One Centre” and smart classrooms, NetDragon can help further accelerate the digitalization, informatization and modernization of education in Africa.
Dr. Xiong Li, CEO of NetDragon, commented that the cooperation between NetDragon and Nigeria will become a model for digital education construction in African countries, and its success is expected to be followed by other African countries such as Kenya and Ghana. In the future, NetDragon hopes to see more African countries joining the “IDEA” family to jointly promote the development of digital education in Africa. NetDragon also targets to echo United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – “to ensure an inclusive and fair quality education and provide everyone with the opportunity of lifelong learning”, in order to allow children in different areas worldwide to experience the learning experience and fun brought by advanced technology.
About NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) is a global leader in building internet communities with a long track record of developing and scaling multiple internet and mobile platforms that impact hundreds of millions of users. These include China’s number one online gaming portal, 17173.com, and China’s most influential smartphone app store platform, 91 Wireless, which was sold to Baidu for US$1.9 billion in 2013 as the largest Internet M&A transaction in China.
Established in 1999, NetDragon is one of the most reputable and well-known online game developers in China with a history of successful game titles including Eudemons Online, Heroes Evolved and Conquer Online. In recent years, NetDragon has also started to scale its online education business on the back of management’s vision to create the largest global online learning community, and to bring the “classroom of the future” to every school around the world.
For more information, please visit www.netdragon.com.
For investor enquiries, please contact:
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
Ms. Maggie Zhou
Senior Director of Investor Relations
Tel.: +852 2850 7266 / +86 591 8754 3120
Email: maggie@nd.com.cn
Website: www.nd.com.cn/ir
Source: ACN Newswire