Hello Everyone!<\/p>\n
Here’s the latest news on Connect Africa.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I’m delighted to welcome Melanie Malema who joined us in July. Melanie<\/strong> brings with her a wealth of NGO and Development Sector experience and will be responsible for operational management out of our Rivonia office (kindly provided by TC3<\/strong> and Galaxy Media<\/strong>).<\/p>\n Welcome also to Hilton Theunissen and Brett Belinsky who have agreed to be non-executive Directors of Connect Africa Services in South Africa .<\/p>\n Hilton<\/strong>, formally of the Shuttleworth Foundation, is expanding the Shuttleworth tuXlab<\/a> initiative (computer centres in schools) across Southern Africa within a new organisation called Inkululeku.<\/p>\n Brett<\/strong> has built a strong reputation within the South African business and banking communities over the past 25 years and sits on the boards of several\u00a0companies as an independent non executive director, including Connecting Africa<\/a> (no relation!), a satellite installation & maintenance company working in\u00a038 countries around Africa.\u00a0 He is also involved with his wife in T.E.A. their\u00a0own\u00a0bespoke tailor and fashion design house – very useful for when you need that special custom made suit or outfit.<\/p>\n Rachael Barber (Head of Global Community Investment, Barclays Corporate Affairs) and Julia Zilberman (Senior Manager, European Bank of Reconstruction & Development) remain as non-executive Directors of the UK registered non-profit, Connect Africa Technologies.<\/p>\n We\u00a0are currently in the process of registering Connect Africa as a Section 21 Non Profit Organisation (“Connect Africa Services”) in South Africa and this will be a big step in enabling us to secure future\u00a0development funding, not to mention government related contracts.<\/p>\n A big thank you to Elias Mashilo, Rachel Maja, Melanie Malema\u00a0and Ashley Masondo (Digital Links International) who all kindly agreed to be “subscribers” in the registration process.<\/p>\n At\u00a0the beginning of September we received our first funding from the Southern Africa Trust<\/a>. A\u00a0Big thank\u00a0you to Neville Gabriel and his team at the trust for all their\u00a0hard work.\u00a0 It’s a timely and crucially valuable grant that enables us to cover the all-important operational costs for a while\u00a0to come.<\/p>\n A big thank you too to Iveco<\/strong> who have generously extended their sponsorship of the Iveco “Daily” van for another 6 months.\u00a0 Without the vehicle Connect Africa couldn’t operate and I cannot exaggerate just how much we appreciate this contribution.\u00a0 Iveco have a new Managing Director, Eduardo Chvatal who was\u00a0instrumental in getting us this support and we look forward to working with him and his team in the future.<\/p>\n We’ve also been very fortunate to receive\u00a0$18K worth of software from Microsoft<\/strong> through their Unlimited Potential (UP)<\/a> program\u00a0and we look forward to putting\u00a0some very valuable tools to good use. Thanks specifically to Chose Choeu and Themba Mdlalose at Microsoft South Africa who were instrumental in securing us this grant.<\/p>\n We’re\u00a0currently in discussions with the Development Bank of Southern Africa<\/strong> for the proposed\u00a0roll-out of Connect Africa across South Africa from 2007 to 2010 and we intend for this to\u00a0form the basis of our expansion\u00a0strategy.\u00a0 This relationship is filled with potential and we’re all working hard\u00a0to make it happen.<\/p>\n Our relationship with Cellular Banking pioneers Wizzit<\/a> has been an immediate\u00a0success.\u00a0 Elias, our Limpopo Operator arranged for\u00a0over 30 people to be trained as Wizzkids (local people\u00a0able to process Wizzit bank\u00a0account applications) in and around the Mokopane region.\u00a0 Since then interest in this high-tech, cost effective banking service has been tremendous, including\u00a065 applicants from a single hotel!<\/p>\n The Wizzit service has also enabled Elias to pay the electricity charges for many\u00a0rural people who were having trouble accessing or getting to Eskom’s recharging facilities.\u00a0 For a small fee he instantly pays their fee using his cell phone and his Wizzit account. He gets a text in return with a\u00a0recharge pin code for their meter and the recharge is complete.\u00a0 This saves rural people not only time but also a trip into town that can cost R50 or more each way.<\/p>\n We have now successfully completed nearly six months of field trials in the Mogalakwena Municipal region <\/strong>in Limpopo Province, South Africa . The Municipality, in particular\u00a0Business Services Manager,\u00a0 Morutse Ntsoane<\/strong>, have been instrumental to the success of these trials. Many lessons have been learnt and both Connect Africa\u00a0and Mogalakwena Municipality are ready to move to the next phase, namely to roll the service out across the whole municipal region.<\/p>\n It is proposed that this region will then provide a model for the\u00a0national roll-out across South Africa (proposed for 2007 to 2010) and the rest of Africa (10 countries by 2015).<\/p>\n This newsletter is also going out to the many people that have expressed an interest in becoming Franchisees with Connect Africa over the last few months and I look forward to firming up on our operational requirements early in 2007.\u00a0 In the meanwhile you’ll all be kept updated on our progress.<\/p>\n Our\u00a0priority between now and the end of the year is to comprehensively cover the Mogalakwena Municipal region with a further 2 mobile units and build this into the model for our national and international roll-out strategy to commence early in 2007.<\/p>\n Funding is always top of our agenda, particularly now at these early stages when there is\u00a0little or no revenue being generated.\u00a0 Melanie\u00a0has been tasked to submit and manage several funding applications to corporate and development organisations and I hope to be able to announce some good results in our next update.<\/p>\n I hope\u00a0you have found this mail\u00a0interesting and if you have any comments or questions\u00a0please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.<\/p>\n All the best.<\/p>\n Dion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello Everyone! Here’s the latest news on Connect Africa. Welcome to Melanie, Hilton and Brett! I’m delighted to welcome Melanie Malema who joined us in July. Melanie brings with her a wealth of NGO and Development Sector experience and will … Continue reading Section 21 Registration (South African non-profit registration): <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Funding & Sponsorship! <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Wizzit Successes!<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Limpopo Field Trials: <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Franchisee Prospects:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Next Steps:<\/strong><\/h2>\n