Samsung has urged African governments and private investors to support its Digital Villages Project aimed at improving the standard of living in rural communities.

The Digital Villages Project, which adopts the use of the solar energy to provide improved solutions across various sectors to rural settlements, has five major integrations: internet school, health centre, lantern, tele-medical centre and generator, all of which are solar-powered.

The benefits of this project is the provision of a remote medical centre, which minimizes the necessity to have qualified doctors in these settlements, power generation which reduces production and running costs of businesses and education beyond the four walls of a classroom amongst others.

The project, which was first launched in South Africa in 2013, is now in Gabon, Botswana, Ethiopia and some other African countries.

Although basics of the project such as Samsung Engineering Academy has been introduced in Nigeria, the project has not been fully maximized because of lack of government support.

“Nigeria is a very important market to us… We need support from government, civil organization, NGO, local health authorities among others. Buying the support of stakeholders is the main issue,” Emmanouil Revmates, Director, Hand Held Products of Samsung West Africa said.

He solicited the help of the government and international organizations, stating that the company will not give up on ensuring that the full potential of the Digital Village project is realized.

According to USAID, more than 85 percent of the population in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to electricity.

Perhaps, Samsung’s Digital Village project might be the solution to erratic power supply situation, poor educational infrastructure, and inadequate medical services evident in most rural communities in Africa.