Young entrepreneurs reap benefits:Daily Star

Kabir Uddin had always dreamt of a government job. With all his efforts going in vain, he was in despair as he crossed the threshold of 30, the age limit after which one can no more apply for a civil service job. It was then in 2011 that he met UP chairman Md Abdul Latif who helped him become an entrepreneur at the Prithimpasha Union Digital Centre of Kulaura upazila in Moulvibazar. “After startin
g the job, I did not have to look back. I'm financially independent now and busy with serving people digitally,” said Kabir while talking about his business at the digital centre which is equipped with computers, printers, scanners, and webcams with internet connectivity, multimedia projector etc. Kabir earns around Tk 50,000 a month from the centre which is good enough to run his family. Kabir is one of about 11,000 such entrepreneurs who attended the Digital Centers Entrepreneurs Conference at the city's National Parade Ground on Tuesday.  The Prime Minister's Office organised the conference where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina spoke as the chief guest. The PMO, in association with UNDP and USAID, initiated the Access to Information programme (a2i) under which digital centres were launched in all 4,501 UPs of the country on November 11, 2010. At present, there are 4,547 Union Parishad Digital Centres, 321 Municipality Centres and 407 Ward Level Centres in 11 city corporations. Advertisement The digital centres draw students, youths, farmers, jobseekers, migrant families who get around 60 digital services including computer training, land registration, public exam results, government forms, birth and death registration, online university admission, employment information, and mobile banking. “I did not know how to use a cell phone whereas now I know how to operate a computer and many are learning from me to be self reliant,” Kabir told The Daily Star after the conference. He said if their work continued unhindered, they would be able to improve the centres more. Akmol Hossain, another entrepreneur from Moulvibazar district, said the digital centre where he had been working changed his life and his income rose to Tk 60,000 per month. Taslima Begum, another entrepreneur from the district's Chadnighat, said the society did not receive their involvement with the centres positively at the beginning. “Now people understand that we have been contributing to the country, to the society and finally to our family,” she said. Each Union Digital Centre is operated by two young local entrepreneurs under the supervision of a local advisory headed by the UP chairman. The UP provides space and utility for the centre while Local Government Division coordinates activities with the Cabinet Division and the Bangladesh Computer Council to establish the basic ICT setup including computers, laptops, printers, multimedia projector, digital camera, webcam and solar panel, according to the a2i website.