Fantsuam Foundation

Last updated March 31, 2019

Fantsuam Foundation is a Nigerian non-profit organisation working in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that is working to develop a rugged computer suited for African conditions. Known as the Solo computer, this wooden-encased PC is being designed to cope with the "heat and dust" of Africa. The British Broadcasting Corporation featured this organisation's work on the Solo computer.^{[ citation needed ]}

Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both categories. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere.

Wireless internet in northern Nigeria

It is the lone provider of wireless internet service in northern Nigeria.^{[ citation needed ]} Founded in 1996 in Jos, Nigeria, Fantsuam Foundation is a non-profit organization working on gender and youth focused microfinance and ICT (or information and communication technology) services and development in rural communities of Nigeria.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria, commonly referred to as Nigeria, is a federal republic in West Africa, bordering Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Its coast in the south is located on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The federation comprises 36 states and 1 Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja is located. Nigeria is officially a democratic secular country.

Jos is a city in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. The city has a population of about 900,000 residents based on the 2006 census. Popularly called "J-Town", it is the administrative capital of Plateau State.

Microfinance is a category of financial services targeted at individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems. Microfinance services are designed to be more affordable to poor and socially marginalized customers and to help them become self-sufficient.

BBC's interest

British telecasters from the BBC were surprised by the "digital renaissance" experienced by the affected area in Kafanchan. They claimed that the people of the area were "eager to join the information age, use computers and get on-line"^{[ citation needed ]}.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London, and it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total, 16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed-contract staff are included.

Kafanchan is a mainly Christian-dominated town in the southern part of Kaduna State, Middle Belt, Nigeria. It is the location of a junction station of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, and it sits on the line connecting Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kafanchan, Kuru, Bauchi, and finally Maiduguri. As of 2007, Kafanchan had an estimated population of 83,092.

Solo computer's plans

Now Fantsuam Foundation is working on a revolutionary solar-powered alternative computer, tailormade for the "developing world".

John Dada of Fantsuam told the Association for Progressive Communications in an interview, "FF had been involved in importation of refurbished PCs for civil society organizations in Nigeria. We soon realized that these PCs were as vulnerable to heat, dust and unreliable power supply as the brand new ones. We found a UK-based design team that was working on a system that addressed these three 'rural tropical' issues."

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of organizations that was founded in 1990 to provide communication infrastructure, including Internet-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for peace, human rights, protection of the environment, and sustainability. Pioneering the use of ICTs for civil society, especially in developing countries, APC were often the first providers of Internet in their member countries.

Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere. By other authors, "civil society" is used in the sense of 1) the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens or 2) individuals and organizations in a society which are independent of the government.

Fantsuam plans to develop this into a small industry that can serve the local population.

"It is our way of bringing cutting edge technology to rural Nigeria, and promoting rural ICT entrepreneurship and associated downstream employment opportunities," says Dada.

Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which is often initially a small business. The people who create these businesses are called entrepreneurs.

Starting with micro-finance

He also noted that the BBC coverage significantly helped highlight their program. Drawing global attention, this film reported how the Fantsuam Foundation, started as a micro-finance project with only twenty-five clients, turned out to be a huge success and administration became a problem. They report great success in regards to classroom work and training with new users.

High temperatures, dust and PCs

The new computer is called Solo and they are developing it in partnership with a group of software designers based in Britain. The Foundation reports that high temperatures and dust are a large factor in causing a high number of crashes, especially when combined with unstable software. The Solo computer is designed to get around these troubles and Fantsuam is now field-testing the latest prototype, which is approximately the size of a single card from the motherboard of a normal PC.

The Solo has no moving parts to fail as the hard drive is replaced by a flash card and is specially engineered to work under 8.5 watts of power. It runs on the Linux computer operating system, which greatly reduces the cost that would otherwise be necessary for the purchase of an operating system.

Cheaper in the long-run

The Fantsuam Foundation plans to produce Solo computers for the general market.

They are giving workshops and demonstrations to potential users of the new system. The system currently prices at around $1200. But John Dada argues that might not be a high price for a machine that lasts for 12 to 15 years. In the long run the costs will even out because there will be no expensive maintenance bills or software upgrades, he says. But coming up with the initial investment is not easy.

Says Dada: "In five, ten years time my hope is that each village in Nigeria -- I'm not asking for too much -- each village in Nigeria can have one Solo. If one village has one Solo the whole of Nigeria will be networked. To me that would be moving into the 20th century for Nigeria."

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