Just over 50% of the world’s population is online – but we know that this was the “easier” half to connect and that the rate at which new users are connecting is slowing.
On the supply side access growth is slowing because of a lack of investment in infrastructure in more sparsely populated rural areas – “the last mile”. On the demand side growth is slowing because of the lack of relevant and affordable content and services for communities, and the lack digital skills needed to use and build them.
Why should communities demand internet access if they do not see the value in it? Why demand access when there is no existing entertaining, educational, or otherwise valuable content in local languages relevant to local communities, no mechanism to create and share this content, or the digital skills or financial resources to do either?
Wakoma is tackling these challenges by building connectivity and EdTech solutions that start with communities at the “first centimeter”. At the same time we are working with our partners to deploy community-based telecommunications infrastructure where there no access and where access is unreliable, unaffordable, or excessively censored.
If incumbent operators are the rocks in the jar, Wakoma is empowering communities to become the sand that fills in the unconnected spaces.