03 July 2020

Pan-African telecom group Liquid Telecom is providing its managed VSAT connectivity services to mbora, a new social enterprise in Malawi.

The operator  provides people living and working in rural areas with free connectivity at a community hub. It has also built a super app to help increase digital inclusion by providing access to useful and relevant information and services online including finance and healthcare. Content and service organisations are able to use the app as a marketplace to reach important food-producing farming and fishing communities in rural sub-Saharan Africa.

Liquid Telecom is providing mbora with its own VSAT network. Each mbora hub is serviced with broadband speeds of up to 36mbps, which in turn enables mbora and its content partners to digitally deliver their services to mbora users over a free internet connection. Liquid Telecom is using the latest High-Throughput-Satellite of its long-term partner Intelsat and providing an uncapped data service to mbora.

The first community hub is now live in a lake shore village near Mangochi, Malawi, a four-hour drive from the country’s capital, Lilongwe.

Adrian Raisbeck, founder and CEO of mbora, said “Malawi is one of the world’s least developed and poorest countries and yet it is blessed with great soils and the third largest body of water on the African continent. Rural communities in Malawi should be living wealthy and resilient livelihoods."