Connect Africa has officially opened office in Lusaka; this has created a platform for a roll-out services across the region. Connect Africa is Zambia’s pioneering rural telecommunications equipment and Solutions Company.
Connect Africa has chosen Zambia as its hub, which it plans to use as the facilitator from which to launch its low-cost entrepreneur-driven information and communications technology (ICT) services to rural communities across southern Africa.
“Connect Africa is pioneering a new model of service delivery that puts rural people in control of their communications needs,” explained Connect Africa Special Projects Director Dion Jerling. “We see Zambia as the leading example of how state-of-the art technology can be harnessed to connect remote communities to the mobile phone network, empowering them to develop their livelihoods as a result.”
Connect Africa links Africa’s entrepreneurial spirit and recent innovations in GSM technology infrastructure to enable rural people and rural communities across Africa to improve their quality of life and economic well-being.
With education, agriculture and health services and other services given by both public and private sector to rural communities, will boosted by the new connectivity. This, combined with the Connect Africa Service Centre concept, will create jobs and enhance rural communities as well as providing a tool for government to gather feedback on the effectiveness of its services.
The strategy is part of Connect Africa’s “impact enterprise” model that aims to influence innovative communication technologies for socio-economic development across Africa and beyond.
The crucial elements to the model are service centers at each base station, run by local entrepreneurs who are able to provide services such as internet access, phone charging and business services to the community.
The low-cost base stations also keep capital costs to a minimum, enabling construction to be funded through a revenue-sharing model based on income generation.