[INTERVIEW] ABC brings an exclusive interview with Mark Afolabi, founder of WhiteSpaces
ABC brings to you an exclusive interview with Mark Afolabi, founder of WhiteSpaces, rural Nigeria’s answer to accessible internet broadband? Let’s find out!
1.Tell us about WhiteSpaces?
At WhiteSpaces our mission is to deliver free, fast and affordable mobile and wireless internet broadband access to millions of unserved and underserved Nigerians, with focus on low end users and rural areas.
The Internet and the Web have transformed our lives. Looking forward, we are seeing even more exciting digital developments that will provide more benefits to more people in more places
2. How long have you been running and what motivated the start of this company?
Basically we've been working on this for the past couple of months but we started working on Beta late last month. As much as the internet was an incredible tool for my day to day activities, I needed a broadband connection to access it. A broadband connection cost here in Nigeria was expensive and the speed? Nothing to write home about, above all there was no reliability.
This was a major problem/barrier for me, even the lowest cost of accessibility was still too expensive for the average user. I could remember a day, an event was happening in Lagos I was in Abuja, and I had to stream online to access the event. Long story short, I couldn't, the connection had to buffer repeatedly, my eye was monitoring my data usage, it was messy.
Then I realized I wasn't the only one with this problem, over 70% of the entire population were battling same issue among which we have people with no connection at all. According to the Nigerian National broadband plan 2013-2018, the most credible statistics on broadband penetration estimate that Nigeria’s broadband penetration is between 4% and 6%.
So I set out to work on a solution that differentiates itself by constantly providing the community with innovative services that offers a convenient and affordable way to access the Internet, offering the market true wireless accessibility at anytime of the day and maximum uptime they can count on. Allowing users to be empowered to access information whenever and wherever they are.
3.How are you able to spread news of what you do to your targets; the rural communities?
Like the community we are starting with, we visit them, educate them about our offerings and how they could be of benefits to them using their local languages. The interest is just amazing
4.What significance do you think internet access will have in these rural communities in Nigeria?
They’re going to use it to decide what kind of government they want, get access to quality and affordable health care for the first time ever, experience Education in a new dimension, it will boost agricultural productivity, the opportunities and possibilities are just so endless.
5.what should Africa expect from your outfit in the next five to ten years?
In the next 5-10 years, we want to have bridged the digital divide significantly, deliver affordable internet access to every unserved and underserved homes in Nigeria, and across Africa.
http://mywhitespaces.com/
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