Who are you, and where are you from?

I’m Nzola Swasisa, and I was born and raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Because of my passion for technology, at a young age I started taking electronics communications courses. Since then, I built an entire academic and working career in the field. For 19 years I worked for the Christian organization Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in 6 different countries; DRC, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique.

While working at MAF, I became aware of the lack of telecommunication infrastructures in rural communities and I begun to refurbish old radio communications to help establish new communication systems.

In the late 90’s, I started implementing a radio email system which consisted of sending emails via radio waves. When cell phones then became popular in Africa, I decided to build an offline mobile email server.

What are you working on?
I have been working on Lokole, our custom software-and-hardware device since 2017. Lokole is such a simple plug-and-play device that makes emails accessible to everyone. Lokole creates a 25m radius WiFi network to access the Lokole app. Lokole WiFi and app work under cellular coverage to minimize bandwidth costs. Lokole is named after a traditional Congolese long-distance ceremonial slim drum instrument. Lokole has been already to changing the life of many by bringing affordable emails to the unconnected!

**Why is their sponsorship important? **
Email is at the core of our modern life, letting us keep in touch with friends and family, connecting us to our businesses partners and fostering innovation through exchange of information.

However, in many parts of the developing world, email access is not very wide-spread, usually because bandwidth costs are prohibitively high compared to local purchasing power. For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) only 17.7% of the population have access to emails which leaves more than 75 million people unconnected.

How will you use the funds?
I would like to contract a software developer maintainer.
I have been using freelancer software developer to wok on some issues and do not have permanent funding. Many time money come from my pocket as bootstrapping. I do it because though I leave in Canada people in the Congo in Africa where I am originally from cannot afford data individually and Lokole hepls them as a shared device for thei emeil and educational server.