BasicInternet:Introduction Unafundo - Basic Internet Foundation
Agenda
- Introduction to Unafundo
- Basic Internet Foundation
- BIF infospots
- Way forward
Introduction to Unafundo
- Wenzile Madonsela Msimanga and Khulekile Msimanga are the directors of Unafundo, a consultancy company that is based in South Africa, focusing on enterprise development and financial literacy
- The consultancy company also focuses on people from informal sector and startups, offering emotional intelligence to its clients
- Unafundo was founded and has been running for the past two years where it has gained immense support by people from the private sector
- Businesses influence government policies and given that compliance is huge, there is an immense need for training, support and upscaling businesses
- Part of the global competence require ICT solutions for the people in the informal sector
- Unafundo appreciates the work that South African Norwegian Association (SANA) is doing
- One of its project is towards informal traders in which it focuses on the method of payment without the money exchanging hands. This results in security for the traders and their dignity
- Providing information to the traders and equally conduct stable trade with the traders through the platform
- Unafundo is also looking into creating content for enterprise development to promote the local businesses and create value for these local businesses
- They are currently collaborating with an NGO in South Africa, that has a rural areas
Basic Internet Foundation
- Basic Internet Foundation focuses on non-discriminating access to digital inclusion to help close the digital divide https://basicinternet.org
- Our current project is based on the National Knowledge Portal
- A National Knowledge Portal combines three aspects, all being central for the empowerment of societies:
- Knowledge distribution for education, health, governmental information, as well as digital public goods. As an example, the portal may hold courses to acquire digital skills, and handle certificates for the educational sector.
- Data governance and innovation of national data is the core for value creation within the country. “Data is the new oil”, this statement of Telenor’s CEO Sigve Brekke demonstrates the value of data, and the need for building the economy around these national data.
- Inclusive access to the National Knowledge Portal is an easy way ahead for regulations. License conditions for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Mobile Operators could include the “free access to the National Knowledge Portal” as a prerequisite for a license.
- When it comes to our presence in Africa and working based on transparency and accountability, it can be challenging. However, BIF have a close affiliation to the Norwegian government and we work towards addressing the key issues mentioned in the white paper on inclusion mentioned above, which is the driver for their work internationally
- The goal is that the more activities and tasks are taken digitally, the more we work towards dismantling corruption
- Media:202005_FinalDigI_KnowledgePortal_Noll.pdf
BIF Infospots
- Our internet lite narrative costs less bandwidth. Therefore, we build the infospots which are open wifi spots for information layer
http://BasicInternet.no
- We also work with Community Networks across the continent to drive our agenda for connecting the villages. Examples are in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Rwanda, Zimbabwe
- Each village has services to provide information to the people based in these villages hence the need for connectivity per village
- Our infospots reach approximately 20kms plus distance
- Since the foundation works towards solving access as a major challenge, our freemium model has inclusive access that is non-discriminative
- When it comes to infrastructure challenges, individuals can blacklist or whitelist the different pages-This is why we work with the telecom operators
in the different countries to show that our solution is not a competitor to the telecom operators
- The major upgrade issue is to the 4G
- Our best way to scale up is through the community involvement. That is, a symbiotic collaboration and partnerships with existing businesses, whereby these businesses become a hive of connecting the people (Talk of microsoft villages etc)
- Looking for mechanisms to sustain the project years on end
- Provide reliable information to the communities
Way Forward
