1. Bulawayo Youth Driven Township Economy Powered by Mesh Wi

1. The Township youth in particular have been at the receiving end of the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.

2. We are proposing an optimised environment like a Township Wide Wi-Fi Mesh Network owned by Youth Cooperatives, who will print, package and sell vouchers to access the Network at less than 1% of current data prices. They will also own be community advocates to get the community to be part of the solution and change via utilisation of a free to download and use App

3. Positive and scalable in Developing countries

3.1 Providing cheap data to access information and knowledge

3.2 Providing Value Added Service and the Entrepreneurial spin-offs 

3.3 Wi-Fi Mesh Network Application becomes platform for community wide 3.4 collaboration as well taking advantage of communities of scale on basic goods and services.

3.5 Youth Driven Agent network to go to households registering users on App (commission model)

The Zimbabwe crisis has been particularly tough on the Township Youth, who are financially excluded, most spend their time being unproductive. Mobile Data prices in Zimbabwe are prohibitively high excluding the economically inactive youth even further. Zimbabwe has a population of 14 million with an average age of 19 years old. 65% of the population is below 25 years old meaning the most affected are the youth. They lack both jobs and opportunities to leverage technology to contribute in uplifting themselves from the challenges that characterise the high density townships of Zimbabwe. The scale of Zimbabwe's problem is well and widely documented all over the world. In the world, this issue afflicts most 3rd world countries and populations with relatively young population base, mostly in Africa, Asia and South America. Our solution focuses on using technology to impact the high density townships in Zimbabwe by leveraging the collective power of high density communities by using the Youth and Economic Change Agents through the TOWNSHIP ECONOMY.

The Solution we are working on serves the communities in the high density townships of Zimbabwe, specifically the youth. This is where you find most of the urban youth who have no jobs and economic opportunities. Our solution will be youth driven through a youth led change agent network. It requires youth to arrange themselves into cooperatives that will be responsible for owning the solution which will drive the township economy, they will also be responsible for convincing the community to engage in the economic activity that will benefit everyone. The Community benefit comes in the form of leveraging the collective buying power of the dense population through an app that allows for bulk ordering of goods and services as well as bargaining power. The purchasing can only be done through the youth owned App and access of the App will be free if accessed through the cooperative owned township wide mesh WiFi network. Access of the WiFi is through tokens printed and sold as a fraction of data costs by the multiple cooperatives.

Our Solution is a mesh WiFi network that spans an entire township. The mesh network is essentially a neighbourhood wide WiFi hotspot owned and operated by Township Youth Co-operatives known as Youth Economic Change Agents (YECAs). Within the hotspot data/access is sold at fraction of actual costs and the tokens to access the WiFi are printed centrally and sold by the youth cooperatives. Schools and libraries within the hotspot receive free access to the WiFi. Furthermore, there is an App that goes with the hotspot which, when downloaded, allows access to a community wide market place and collective bargaining and purchase capability this speak to not only benefiting the Youth but entire communities. Potential suppliers like farms and other service providers can offer their products to the market place as long as they offer discounted rates and prices in return for an agreed minimum amount of orders to be placed before hand. The solution also uses public transport operators to act as delivery partners during their off peak times to make door to door deliveries further increasing community wide involvement. 

The Township or neighbourhood wide WiFi hotspot has a fibre link to the IAP network. It is provided via Rocket Prism which contains long range beams that vary between the high performance power beam and the lite beam broadcast from satellite dishes set on buildings or on poles marginally lower that a street light. 

Our solution is a truly community wide approach to change management, technology usage, youth empowerment, youth employment creation as well as opportunity creation. The use of the mesh WiFi to grown the township economy in Zimbabwe has never been implemented, the collective bargaining power of the high density areas is unheard of in Zimbabwe through the proposed use of the mobile application owned and run by the youth. The youth have to actively be involved in convincing the community to download the app and use it it exchange for more commission. This will give the youth purpose, take them off the streets, make them more productive, earn and income and contribute to their own upliftment as well as their communities. The township economy run and owned by the collective township youth will utilise public transport commonly known in Zimbabwe as "emergency taxis". During off peak times, these taxis lie idle, however, the youth will be able to negotiate that they become the delivery partners of good purchased in bulk via the app to be delivered at the door of those who purchased. 

The mesh network is essentially a neighbourhood wide Wi-Fi hotspot with a fibre link to the IAP network. It is provided via Rocket Prism which contains long range beams that vary between the high performance power beam and the lite beam broad cast from satellite dishes set on buildings or on poles marginally lower than a street light.  

It is a known fact that Zimbabwe is going through tough economic times, the unavailability of jobs means the poor people in high density areas bear the brunt of it all. The youth in particular are starved of opportunities because they have no access to information because of prohibitive data prices.

Pre-conditions for community economic inclusiveness and youth empowerment

• Access to dramatically cheap data and access to information
• Optimised Environment to stimulate innovation usually associated with access to information
• Setting the right attitude in the Youth of Zimbabwe in order to be eager to innovate
• Empowering the youth to earn an income to support themselves and their families.
• Empowering the youth to have a sustainable job and at the same time improving the livelihood of the communities they live in

The right conditions to innovate can be created in the Wi-Fi Mesh Network because the network has a human and social bias, it is inclusive, will encourage, economic activity at the level of the community, innovation, continuous improvement and the ability for Zimbabwean developed ideas to compete in the rest of the world.

This solution stimulates innovation which is dependent on continuous improvement of existing ideas; Africa’s challenge has always been access. Access to knowledge is the single most important stimulant of new idea creation and innovation. The Wi-Fi Mesh Network will prove that all the youth of Africa need is an opportunity to be creative and that starts with access to cheap data.

Currently because this is a concept we are not serving any people. However, a year from implementation we expect to serve a Township within the seconded largest city in Zimbabwe called Bulawayo. The specific area that we have earmarked in Gwabalanda, please refer to diagram below. Gwabalanda has 13 968 residents in 1 164 properties, what makes it ideal is that its is one of the few high density areas with fibre outlay in Bulawayo. In Five years we expect to have significantly covered the majority of Bulawayo's population which stands at between 700 000 and 750 000 people.

Within the next year we hope to convince the Zimbabwean government, through POTRAZ (Post and Office and Telecommunications Regulation Authority of Zimbabwe) to relax the stringent measures that restrict young people from entering in the internet access provider space. The restrictions do not cater for small businesses or youth driven cooperatives to play in this space. The youth are the future and they need to start owning technology in order to influence the future for themselves and the country. In 5 years time we want to be seen as the pioneers of a project many thought impossible. the township economy will be a thriving economic power house who dictate economic terms to producers and suppliers and not the other way round. This situation is particularly evident in Zimbabwe where the consumer has been affected by a sellers market meaning that service standards, quality has been compromised as scarcity of goods increased desperation and therefore widespread acceptance of inferior products and services. 

Currently the prohibitive prices to register to operate ideally as an ISP in Zimbabwe are beyond reach for small, youth led and driven businesses and cooperatives. The government focuses on making money from licencing and ignores that the youth need to enter that particular business area as well. The registration process is rigorous and can be discouraging as it includes many hurdles that a tailored for large businesses.

We are already in discussion with POTRAZ and they have agreed to assist and guide is in the process and well as legal resources to assist us to challenge POTRAZ where their mandate might be prohibitive to Youth Empowerment.

6 Full time Staff, we also have access to 2 additional resources. The skills down of the team is as follows:

1. Business and Systems Analysis

2. Operations and Logistics 

3. Senior Software Developer

4. Accountant

5. Start up funding and deal structuring

6. Utilities experience, prepaid electricity and airtime sales

We are born and raised in the high density townships of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Our company was formed to provide impact to the youth of Zimbabwe. Most of our projects focus on the youth. Our Team comprises of 5 people with experience in business analysis, systems analysis, accounting, operations, logistics, tech start up funding, prepaid electricity technology, financial modelling.

We currently partner with a German NGO called the Friedrich Neuman Foundation Zimbabwe office. They have assisted us to host service delivery and youth led hackathons and we are about to have another hackathon in Victoria Falls, zimbabwe and our theme is transforming into a smart city to improve tourist experiences and safety as well improve service delivery. The hackathon participants are the Youth. We also partner with the City of Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. 

We are currently self funded and rely on donations from NGOs

Financial viability will come in the form of managing the entire value chain. The process below explains how

1. Access to the WiFi mesh is dependent on users purchasing tokens or access codes from the youth owned co-operatives

2. The youth co-operatives will request prepaid tokens from us, every token sold therefore has a margin built in to ensure constant revenue.

3. Transaction based revenue streams are sustainable especially in this setting because we will attract huge volumes because our data will cost a fraction of what it is currently. Data prices in Zim have almost druadrippled in the last few years ranking as one of the most expensive in the region. Coupled with the socio-economic issues, everyone is forced to adjust and look for cheaper options especially in the high density areas we will operate in.

In addition to the above, we have launched an App (Izwi)that will assist us to be financially viable in the future, we have also submitted solutions to the City of Bulawayo and awaiting adjudication. 

We are a small business from a small city, we hope solve will assist us to be able to hire more local talent youth and be in a position to remunerate them whilst using Solve network to develop our youth in software development and other business related activities. We want to work, we want work, we ant to create work. The support does not have to be monetary.