Cape Town - Pan-African bank Ecobank has partnered with Google to keep children learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
As the coronavirus continues to disrupt lives around the world, the bank said it was committed to protecting the health, safety and well-being of its customers across Africa.
With physical distancing being enforced and schools closed, parents have looked for ways to help children keep up school curricula.
In a statement, Ecobank said it was helping to raise awareness of locally relevant, globally applicable and accredited literacy and learning apps supporting parents' efforts to educate their children at home.
It said the apps were now available for downloading from Google's Play Store platform at no cost.
They include speech-based reading, play-to-learn techniques, fun games to help the children practice what they have learnt, as well as spelling and reading skills.
“With children away from school and spending more time online, it’s more important than ever to ensure their online safety.” the banking group said.
On Thursday, Google hosted a ‘Online Safety for Families & Parents’ webinar on YouTube to help keep children safe online.
“We believe that children are Africa’s future. At this unprecedented time, it is more important than ever that parents use technology to help their children continue to learn and improve their knowledge," said Nana Abban, head of consumer banking at Ecobank.
“Countries across Africa have historically had limited access to educational platforms. We are leveraging our distribution network to make access to education as easy as the tap of an app, keeping children educated and enlightened at the same time, whilst also keeping them safe online."
Ecobank serves about 20 million customers in the consumer, commercial and corporate banking sectors across 33 African countries.