Three billion people — 38% of the world’s population — experience the digital divide daily. They live within mobile broadband coverage but remain offline, blocked by barriers like device affordability, unreliable electricity, and limited digital skills.
In Africa alone, 960 million people have coverage but don’t use mobile internet, while 80% of mobile towers in off-grid and weak-grid areas still run on diesel. Digital inclusion and energy access can no longer be treated as separate challenges.
£200,000 for Digital Inclusion
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Green Transition for Mobile is now accepting applications from for-profit small and growing enterprises across Africa, Central and South America, and South and Southeast Asia.
The fund provides grants up to £200,000 alongside technical assistance, bootcamp participation, investor connections, and visibility through GSMA publications and events.
The fund targets two focus areas:
- Clean energy access for digital inclusion — business models that bridge energy and affordability gaps, supporting reliable access to mobile networks and devices. Think mini-grid solutions, smart metering, renewable energy for telecom towers, and productive-use energy models.
- Device circularity and handset affordability — services that extend device lifespans and reduce environmental impact through repair, refurbishment, trade-in programs, leasing models, and responsible e-waste recycling. The global market for circular mobile devices is projected to exceed $150 billion by 2027, and refurbished phones carry 80–90% lower carbon emissions than new devices.
The fund is open to for-profit private sector enterprises that leverage mobile and digital technologies, including AI. Competitive applicants will demonstrate solutions that are innovative, locally rooted, commercially sustainable, and scalable with measurable impact on underserved populations.
Apply Now! Deadline is April 6, 2026
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Danfat Agro Business Services was established in 2022 at Mile 91 Town with the goal of production, processing, marketing of products in the country for making profit. The Enterprise aims is to introduce fair price into the selling of agricultural food products, particularly to our Customers in the Country. We also found out that, in Sierra Leone, small-scale farmers generally have more difficulties in finding established markets Therefore, the farmers are left with no option but to develop marketing systems that fit their unique situations. As a result, the farmers loose so much money to the middlemen who take advantage of the situations to buy very cheap from the farmers and sell at ‘cut-throat prices’ in the urban markets. This is what DABS is trying to wipe off not to exist again in the Communities.
Following the insightful article by Henre Prinsloo regarding the R88 billion unclaimed benefits challenge, I am reaching out to introduce a technological solution that directly addresses the “operational realities” and “data legacy” issues he described.
My business, KTES (Katorus T Electricity Specialist cc), has developed the world’s first autonomous pension fund tracing ecosystem (Patent: 2024/08563). While centralization is a significant step, we provide the proactive digital infrastructure needed to make it work.
How KTES addresses the points raised in your feature:
Real-Time Tracing vs. Static Records: Our WebSocket-based tracing engine moves beyond reactive searching. It proactively identifies and links beneficiaries in real-time, preventing funds from remaining stagnant.
Solving the “Broken Link”: Our platform is designed to aggregate fragmented data across bespoke systems, creating the “unified, proactive structure” Henre Prinsloo identified as a necessity for the National Treasury’s central administrator model.
Governance & Transparency: We provide a full Audit Log and Compliance Dashboard to ensure the accountability required to maintain public trust.
We would like to share our whitepaper or contribute a technical piece to EBnet on how autonomous tracing can act as the catalyst for societal benefit by reuniting households with these assets.
You can view our prototype and ecosystem here: trust-trace-link.base44.app
I look forward to discussing how KTES can support the retirement industry’s digital evolution.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
KTES Prototype v1.0
Patent No. 2024/08563
[Your Phone Number]