DRC 4G Rollout

In Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the African Development Bank Group sponsored National Digital Agency (ADN) is tasked to rollout the national digital strategy. One of the objective is to connect 5 million people to internet by 2025. KaiOS is working with ADN, local importer/distributor, and handset manufacturers to provide affordable devices for Internet. The business flow is as followed: Local importer/distributor placed order to handset manufacturers and when the phones arrive, they distribute them to mobile operator distribution outlets. The financing is provided to the importer/distributor. And the importer/distributor gets a deal with mobile operators to get a recurring revenue sharing of the subscription revenue in the first 6 months. The plan is to provide $10 financing per unit which will bring the take-home price of smart feature phone down even further to ~$15. Total outlay adds to $50m but it will be rolled out by stage. 1) Require $17 million on revolving credit for trade finance purpose; 2) Medium term (4-6 months) forex swap hedging facilities to lock in CDF/USD, and/or a loan guarantor. The rollout can be fast tracked if more financing is available.