Connect Africa is a non-profit social enterprise that leverages innovative technologies for socioeconomic development. We promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among our network of entrepreneurial local operators to facilitate the delivery of communication, business and public services to their rural communities.
Our business model varies from country to country and even village to village, but is always based on the sustainability of a complete infrastructure and logistics network. Our networks of locally owned rural service centres are supported by district supervisors and are routinely visited by a fleet of service and maintenance vehicles.
After 2 years of research and field trials, funded internally and by the Southern Africa Trust, Connect Africa successfully completed a 6-month pilot project in South Africa’s Limpopo Province in 2007. This pilot was carried out in partnership with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), with the support of key sponsors that included Vodacom, HP, Iveco, Microsoft, VW, Iridium, Graffiti, 4×4 Megaworld and Galaxy Media. Work continues with provincial and local government to roll out a rural service network across the Limpopo Province.
In April 2008 Connect Africa began conducting a trial of satellite connected public pay-phones, supported by the Iridium Satellite Network and the Southern Africa Trust, in deep rural Zambia – in and around the Zambian Wildlife Authority’s (ZAWA) Kafue National Park Game Management Areas.
The success of these trials resulted in the deployment of an extended pilot project in early 2009. Funded by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation ACP-EU and with the support and approval of the Zambian Communications Authority (now the Zambian Information and Communication Technology Authority), Connect Africa deployed six public pay-phones in and around ZAWA’s Kafue Game Management Area in March 2009. This trial incorporated an additional satellite network supported by Thuraya’s regional distributor Fort Info Technology.
All activity across the trial network was monitored and analysed for three months and a project report with recommendations for a national network of rural pay-phones was submitted to the Zambian Communications Authority for review. The rural pay-phone network is the foundation for a multi-purpose service delivery network to deliver routine government, agriculture, health, education, and business services to deep rural communities.
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation ACP-EU has since extended their support to include a series of stakeholder workshops to identify areas where the public, private and NGO sectors can engage with Connect Africa.
It is proposed that the Zambian service network will serve as a model for an African rural service network covering 10 countries by 2015.