It said, Talk Daily, Amelie's hue, teacher strikes, student protests and a lack of basic supplies and technology, that was the reality for East African schools when social entrepreneur Mbenga Sesson grew up in his talk from Ted Zelon, 20 20. He says centuries of wealth inequality is a global epidemic, and he shares the work he's doing to level the playing field in a way that's going beyond just putting computers and apps in the hands of the poor.

Ted talks daily, is brought to you by Progressive, one of the country's leading providers of auto insurance with progressives name your price tool. You say what kind of coverage you're looking for and how much you want to pay. And Progressive will help you find options that fit within your budget. Use the name your price tool and start an online quote today at progressive dotcom price and coverage match limited by state law. Support for TED talks daily comes from ODU, ODU, suite of business apps, has everything you need to run a company.

Think of your smartphone with all your apps right at your fingertips. ODU is just like that for business, but instead of an app to order takeout or tell you the weather, you have sales, inventory, accounting and more all on ODU, you name the department. We've got it covered and they are all connected. So go to ODU Dotcom slash Ted to start a free trial. That's o d o dotcom Ted. I once watched this video of a relay race at a primary school in Jamaica, there are two teams, the yellow team and the blue team, and the kids are doing great, working so hard and running so fast.

And the yellow team as the lead until this little boy gets the baton and runs in the wrong direction. My favorite part is when the grown up chases him looking like he's about to pass out, trying to save the situation and get the kid to run in the right direction. In many ways, that's what it's like for many young people in Africa. There are many PCs behind their peers on the other side of the inequality divide, and they're also running in the wrong direction because as much as we might wish otherwise and aspire to build economic and social systems away, it's not the case.

Global development is a race, and it's a race that my own country, Nigeria and all continent Africa are losing. Inequality must be seen as the global epidemic that it is from the boy who can afford to dream because of the disappointment that could come with it to the girl that skipped school in order to sell snacks in traffic just to fund our school fees. It is clear that inequality is at the center of many of the world's problems, affecting not just the bottom 40 percent of us, but everyone, young men and women who don't get set on the path of equal opportunities become frustrated.

And we may not like the choices they make in their attempt to get what they think directly deserve or punish those that they assume keep them away from those better opportunities. But it doesn't have to be this way if we as humanity make different choices, we have the ability we need to fill that opportunity gap or we just have to prioritize it. I grew up many pieces behind, even though I was a smart kid growing up in a town of 350 kilometres from Lagos.

It felt like a place that was disconnected from the rest of the world and one where hope and dreams were limited. But I wanted to get ahead. And when I saw a computer for the first time in my school, I was spellbound and I knew I just had to get my hands on whatever it was. This was in 1981 and there were only two computers for the entire school of more than five hundred students. So the teacher in charge said computers were not for people like me because I wouldn't understand how to use them.

You would only allow my friend and his two brothers, sons of a professor of computer science, to use it because they already knew what they were doing in university, I was so desperate to be around computers that to make sure I had access to the computer lab, I slept there at night even when the campus was closed due to teacher strikes and student protests.

I didn't own a computer until I was gifted one in 2002. But what I lack in devices I made up for in drive and determination.

However, coming out in computer labs in order to teach us of coding isn't a systemic solution. Which is why I started part time initiative to help all Nigerians learn to use technology to help them run faster and further toward their hopes and dreams, and help our nation and take our continent great leaps forward in development, you see, to put it as simply as possible. My goal is for everyone in Africa to become famous.

I don't mean like a celebrity. I mean I want everyone to be like famous. When famous or not. Griffey came to power initiative, yet completed high school but couldn't afford college and his options in life were limited. When I asked famous recently about way would have been without our training program, you rolled out a list of cutups, including ending up on the streets, jobless and homeless at a risk of doing things they wouldn't be proud of. But luckily, Fillmore's came to Padam initiative in 2007 because his friends, who were part of a youth group I told about my plans, kept talking about a free computer training program.

And do any Australian females pay close attention, unexcelled when the United Kingdom trade and investment team at the UK deputy commissioner in Lagos access to recommend a few potential interns were recommended famous and a few others to be interviewed. You got internship and while there you heard about an entry clearance assistant job and a UK commission in Abuja. He applied even though without a college degree, no one thought he had a shot. It was starting behind, but it wasn't a technology that helped him get ahead.

It was the extra training training rooted in his community that understood his context and his challenges, training that helped him change his life for the better.

Formost got a job and then saved enough to pay his way through university, famous in medical chemistry, graduate from Delta State University, is now a chartered accountant and an assistant manager with one of the world's big for professional services firms. We have one innovation awards consecutively for the last four years. Well, let's be clear. The computer didn't do that, we did without that additional training and support us wouldn't be where it is today.

Fenice is not given everyone a computer and a special program.

Finace is helping make sure everyone has the same access and training that can help them make use of all the things to improve their lives.

When people are further behind, fairness isn't given everyone the same opportunity to compete.

Fairness is helping those who are behind to get to the same starting line with everyone else and giving them a chance to run their own race in the right direction.

Yet there are millions of young people who have not been as fortunate as us, and I still don't have the skills, let alone the wheel, to face seemingly insurmountable inequality as more workers and students now have to complete tasks or learn from whom this inequality is exponentially pronounced and with dire consequences.

This is why I do what I do through part of the initiative, but just like many intervention programs, there's a limit to how many young people we can reach through our three centers. We've now taken the training to where the kids are, but public schools are so ill equipped that we have to bring devices access and in many cases we have to provide power supply.

Since 2007, with what we young Nigerians, in order to improve their lives and that of their families, to give just one example or go to Corby's father, kicked her, our sisters and Amum out because they preferred to have a son. But when she completed our program, got a job and became the family's breadwinner, a father came clean admitting that it was wrong about the wolf of the girl.

In addition to our work at a training centers and in schools, we're not planning to acquire mobile learning units, buses equipped with access, with devices and with power, and that can serve multiple schools.

Yes, we need better access to technology and policies that facilitate open Internet access. Freedom of expression and more. But the best computers in the world could fall in a democratic forest, but no one would have them, let alone use them, if they were miles away hauling water from a well off foraging for scrap metal to pay school fees in a school that can't even teach them computer skills, just like the fastest cars in the world, can't help it run a mouse behind everyone else.

I'll never forget being invited back to my high school while I was Nigeria's information technology youth ambassador. It was 10 years after had been denied access to using the computer in that very same school, but yeah, was been introduced as a role model who was supposedly shaped by the same school.

After my presentation, that teacher who said I could never understand how to use computers was quick to grab the microphone and tell everyone that he remembered me as a student and he was sure I had it in me all along. It was right, it didn't need at a time, but I did have it in me famous additon, him ogo tulku additon ha the bottom 40 percent of it in them.

Are we going to see the life changing opportunities for people like them, like Vortigern said, or are we going to recognize that centuries of inequality can't just be solved by gadgets, but by training and resources that fully level the playing field?

Fiennes is not about giving every child a computer and an app.

Fiennes is connecting them to access to training and to additional support that they need to take equal advantage of those computers and apps. That's how we pass them the baton and help them catch up and start running in the right direction and change their lives. Thank you. Support for TED Talks Daily comes from ODU, meet Dan Dan built a bike company, but his old software made it impossible to keep up with demand. It took so much time just to make things work, it was essentially sucking the life out of him.

Then he found ODU O2 automated his business by integrating inventory, manufacturing, accounting and marketing. Now he can meet the demand and grow even faster with the e-commerce app. Thanks to ODU, Dan doubled his revenue and can focus on what matters. Go to Oju Dotcom head to start a free trial. That's.

Dotcom Flash Dead TED Talks Daily is hosted by me, Elise Hu and produced by Ted.

Theme music is from Allison Layton Brown. In our mixer is Christopher Fazi Bogon.

We record the talks at TED events we host or from TED events which are organized independently by volunteers all over the world. And we'd love to hear from you. Leave us a review on Apple podcasts or email us at Podcast's at Ted Dotcom p.

R x.