River Life TM

River Life is a unique platform providing digital opportunities for the under-served communities in non-urban Sub-Saharan Africa. The platform promotes digital inclusion and literacy, establishing WIFI zones in areas lacking internet access and providing digital literacy training. The platform provides the following elements: learning, trade, community services, health, democratization, entertainment, community building and financial services.
Moreover the platform has a reward system/gamification, where points are given for completing certain activities; an online learning course, creating infotainment or sorting waste. The points can be exchanged for services in the physical location; more time for WIFI, community dining or cinema tickets. Herein the platform also bridges the digital and physical world.

The platform is divided into local sections and international sections - focusing on the local community and bridging the local community with the world at large. In the international section the focus is learning from and with each other and communitybuilding.  

In average youth constitute 70% of the African population and approximately the same in non-urban areas. 100millions of youths are stagnating without income nor opportunities, this is seen in the high youth unemployment rate (10-20% are unemployed across the Africa– of these approximately 60% are youth under 30years). Hence, we aim at improving the quality-of-life for 14million young people, and 20million people via 200activity centers (numbers are pre-covid-19). The number of people affected is much higher when including the users of River LifeTM

A digital divide exists between generations and genders, and bankability remain, holding back tremendous development potential. Though some digital infrastructure is established, the cost of accessing internet is significant. youths spend up to 60% of their disposable income on data/internet access.

River LifeTM respond to these problems by creating WIFI-zones, providing free WIFI for approx. 1hr/day and we promote digital literacy and offer a variety of online resources and opportunities, including financial literacy and services.

Our solution will in sum of its various components result in youth engagement and skills development for self-development and income generation, which leads to the local economic development needed to make it attractive for the youth to stay in the non-urban areas.

River LifeTM is a web-based platform where a user will sign-up and have their own personal profile.

The platform is divided into an international and local site. The local site is for the non-urban areas linkted to a physical River Center with WIFI and corresponding activities bringing River LifeTM into the physical world. -Learning activities like digital and financial literacy (online and physical), online and physical courses in area relevant skills, circular economy business models, jobmatching, exchange of knowledge between Africa and Nordic (later European countries) countries among other.

-A Market place exchanging used items of the community and local start-ups can sell their service/products.

-Financial Services e.g. mobile-money, transfers,  withdrawals/deposits, investments and business support.

-Online/physical events (Sports, festivals, competitions, cinema etc.)

-Telemedicine, Health information/practices

The international site will be for creating an international community between Sub-Saharan Africa and the Nordic countries (later Europe), to learn from and with each other, innovate together, understand each others culture, have fun together (e.g. E-sport, movie/film competitions, streaming of parties/events) and job matching/mentoring.

The platform makes use of existing technology, as it is a web-based platform, and through our partners it will make use of their technology as well e.g. Telemedicine, learning platforms, financial services.

River Life serve both the under-served communities in non-urban Sub-Saharan Africa, but it will also create a global community within the platform, starting with the Nordic countries where there will be an exchange of knowledge between young Danish students and youth in non-urban Sub-Saharan Africa (starting in Ghana and Uganda).

We have done studies and are continuously doing studies to understand the users, their livelihood, needs and wants as well as the opportunities already existing and the gaps herein. We examine each area to understand which services are needed, interviewing the youth and doing stakeholder consultations.

We have engaged the youth in Ghana, Uganda and Senegal by training interviewers to interview their peers and have been affirmed of the importance of gaining digital competencies in the different areas and how the youth emphasize their need of connectivity and learning to gain opportunities for their future.

The communities we serve are in need of accessing the internet - currently the youth spend up to 60% of their disposable income on mobile data, in order to stay connected. By offering free WIFI for instance 1hr/day the cost relief is a significant impact by itself, with further possibilities to earn time through our reward system. Moreover the communities emphasize their need for learning opportunities, especially income-generating skills training. Based on baseline studies in each area, we will select partners to provide the most relevant future-proof income-generating skills training, with a focus on sustainability, e.g. Beekeeping, creating/maintaining solar panels, waste-to-value, ICT-skills etc.

Finally the communities want more entertainment options - as many areas have none or very little - therefore River Life will also focus on creating fun activities to bring people together locally and globally, e.g. virtual parties, streaming of soccer matches, e-sport, music/film competitions/festivals,

River life is specifically designed to address the needs of the users, as this is the purpose, and thus we are choosing quality checked and relevant partners to be part of our platform, so that we can create as much impact as possible.

We have already had one workshop where we engaged a group of 60 pre-screened African and European participants in co-creation and idea generation of circular economy practices for the River Centers - hereby we got clear indications of the huge interest in building mutual learning communities and participating in these.  

We are currently in the process of launching a test phase of the concept, where we will engage the youth in two non-urban communities to participate in our learning element and connect them with youth in Denmark for mutual learning and skills training, as well as idea-generation.

Though our main focus is on the enormous number of youth in Africa, as well as connecting them with the Nordic/European youth, we also want to close the generation gap, thus including the older generations in activities, ensuring digital literacy and digital inclusion, and offering them the necessary skills to take full advantage of the digital world. For this we partnered with PUM and other stong senior capacities who are committed to share their experience and competencies with for instance the entrepreneurs in the areas and not least those we will groom from the activities in River LifeTM and unfolded in the River Centers – the magic combination that is unique and who we have not seen done elsewhere.

River Life addresses the dimensions of the challenge:

We provide low-income and remote communities access to digital infrastructure and safe and affordable internet - this is done through establishing our WIFI zone with a time limited free access to WIFI and the opportunity to earn more time. We provide digital infrastructure through with our platform. 

River Life is for and provides culturally relevant digital literacy skills to enable participation in the digital economy.

Part of River Life is the financial services which provides financial tools to allow people and small businesses to thrive in the digital economy.

River Life is at the Concept stage, where we are exploring the the different components of the concept, ensuring their feasibility through our studies, and establishing partnerships for the specifically chosen services. The business model is also being fine-tuned through our studies and together with our advisory board and potential investors and partners.

We are building the platform in several stages where we are about to launch the first stage of building the international learning community, starting out with Danish youth and Ghanaian youth. From this we will include Ugandan youth as well. Here we will test out different strategies and functions of the River Life learning and learn how best to build the community.

Once this community is established, we will build on it with each component of the River Life and create the synergy between the components.

We have tested the interest by mobilizing a group of Danish and Ghanaian youth learning from each other on an innovation project - We learned from this and are now ready to scale up to establish bigger groups of youth that can exchange knowledge and do projects together.   

River Life is innovative with its bridging of digital services and physical services, and the building of local and international communities. 

It enables digitally excluded communities to access digital services, gain digital literacy and thus open a world of opportunities. By establishing WIFI-zones and providing infostands for accessing the platform, low-income communities can access a variety of relevant, quality checked and specifically chosen services through the River Life platform, and simply gain internet access. Additionally, the River Life reward system enables us to nudge the communities to learn digital literacy and partake in physical and digital activities promoting sustainability and skills-development. 

River Life includes financial services in the platform, and financial literacy training. Hereby the communities will acquire the knowledge to the full potential of their economic opportunities, both their personal finances and their business performance. Among the different dimensions considered when analyzing financial inclusion, “access” and “usage” are closely related to financial literacy, and therefore we will enhance the knowledge and the confidence of people so they can become active users of the financial resources available

By bridging the non-urban Sub-Saharan communities with the world at large, especially the western world, River Life promotes learning/skills exchange and cultural understanding, as well as innovative idea generation for activities and businesses. This will allow international companies to get insight to the African market, the needs, wants and opportunities and for the African communities to gain business support and network to start their own businesses or take part in the international businesses.

We have tried out with a co-creating design workshop where we had chosen 60 qualified pre-screened applicants to join us - we have also trained teams of interviewers for examining user needs, they are excited to make use of our platform as soon as we launch - of those interviewed approx. 600 are interested in learning more and thus we expect them to sign-up for the platform. We are starting our first phase now where we expect to be serving 10.000 people within a short time.

In one year we expect to be serving 500.000-700.000 people

in 5 years we expect to be serving 10 million people

The numbers are based on only having 6 physical locations to bridge the digital platform with - hopefully we will have more, making this a conservative proposal.

Proportion of population with access to internet in the non-urban communities we operate in.

Proportion of individuals, in the non-urban areas we operate in, who own a mobile telephone, by sex

Participation rate of youth and adults in learning courses/skills
development training in the previous 12 months, by sex, in the non-urban
communities we operate in.

Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill, in the non-urban areas we
operate in.

Percentage of population in a given age group achieving at least a fixed
level of proficiency in functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy
skills, by sex

Proportion of youth and adults in employment, education or training, in the non-urban areas we are working in.

Proportion of small-scale industries with a loan or line of credit in the non-urban communities we operate in.

Percentage of population migrating to the cities from the non-urban areas we operate in.

proportion of African and Europeans participating on our platform.

Proportion of sustainable activities undertaken in the non-urban areas we are operating in.

Full Time:3 (CEO + Chairman + Head of Research)

Part time:2 (Bankability expert + digital designer,developer and communication strategist)

Consultants:3 (Gamification and learning expert+ICT-expert+SoMe expert)

Advisors:9 (Experts within the components of the River Life)

Taskforce:5 + 30 interviewers (Research-team and experts of the components)

Elizabeth Boye, CEO: Elizabeth has 26+years of experience working with inclusive business and partnership-development, working in Africa for governments, international organizations and development-institutions. Thus, she has the necessary Africa-experience as well as understanding for business and partnerships-development from macro to micro-level.

Michael Mathiesen, chairman: Michael has more than 30years experience in international business- and strategy-development, focusing on ICT and E-commerce. He's been involved in more than 325 international investments worldwide, where 2 became unicorns. Hereby he has the necessary business and ICT experience for the solution to succeed.

Sandra Petersen, Head of research+Concept developer: Sandra's background is in information-science and cultural-mediation, and peace&conflict studies. She's worked as an information specialist, has experience concept-development for cultural understanding, and an experienced field-researcher. She has necessary understanding for multi-stakeholder management, concept-development and information-management.   

Diana Scalise, Bankability expert, she's experienced with fin-tech and worked withing the Argentinian developmentbank with financial inclusion, focused on including marginalized groups. 

Mark Mulvaney, Digital designer, developer and communication strategist, with more than 10years experience with early stage startups in hybrid design/development and product management roles, focusing on developing products+services for the African market.  

Jonatan Buus, CTO & chief-architect of Cellpoint: Jonatan has a background as a software-developer, CTO and chief-architect, where he has been in charge of product strategy and technical leadership, as well as developing platforms. Hereby he has the necessary ICT-knowledge to develop the solution.

Peter Josef Kuczanski, Creative Director of Serious Games Interactive: Gamification and interactive learning expert.

Brian Baptista, CEO Supermanager, Learning specialist and SoMe-expert

The leadership team lives through these values - we are an international team, brought together by our passion for making impact. We want to provide opportunities for equity and inclusion in non-urban Sub-Saharan Africa as well as connecting Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. We invite all (regardless of age, gender, culture, nationality, sexuality etc.) with passion and relevant qualifications to join in our work, either as a part of the team or as partners to the concept.   

We believe that only through a diverse team with diverse qualities and competencies can we achieve our goal. Building our digital community also embrace diversity as it is to bridge cultures, skills and mind-sets and connect the global South and North - thus ensuring diverse communities and understanding within these communities.

Inclusion is at the center of the concept and within our team. Within our team it is important that everyone feels that they can voice their opinion and feels respected, as we believe this is the only way to work together and to reach the best results. The platform itself promotes and embraces inclusion - it being usercentric, using inclusive tools and providing services for digital, financial and information inclusion for underserved communities in non-urban Sub-Saharan Africa and building inclusive communities between Africa and Europe.

Our platform is specifically designed for the communities and their different backgrounds, to provide them the needed opportunities to develop and improve their quality of life, hereby emphasizing the importance of equity.

We would like access to:
Funding and investors.
The network of impact-minded leaders
Exposure in media and at conferences
Resources - software licenses and legal services
network for advice and partnerships.

This will enable us to overcome our barrier of getting exposure to private investors already at this early stage, and gain exposure to more interested users or clients of our platform. 

We mostly need partners and support with technology, though we do have consultants helping us with this, we would like ideas and support to how best to do it.

Business model - we would like support in the product-market fit, strategy & development - though we have an experienced advisory board, we are open to listen and get support in how we can improve.

Financial - we have a great need to get exposed to relevant investors and prepare for pitching to them.

Legal and regulatory matters - we need support in data security and protection. 

Product/service distribution - we are always interested in getting to know more partners that can be relevant to include.

Public Relations - though we do have this in-house, it would be nice to expand and get more knowledge on this matter.

We want to partner with passionate good people, people who want to make long term sustainable impact. We are open for ideas, companies and people who see themselves joining us on this impact journey.

We believe River Life is qualified as we are advancing digital equity by providing connectivity to remote non-urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, and digital and financial literacy training for the communities, thus ensuring digital and financial inclusion. Moreover, we are connecting Africa with the world at large creating opportunities for mutual learning and job-matching.

Though our focus is not specifically on digital inclusion for women and girls, we can still be considered qualified as we focus on all - herein also women and girls. Our platform is to create opportunities and activities for all and ensure social and economic development to improve the quality of life for millions of African men and women, boys and girls.