KaiOS Technologies and Orange have partnered together to bridge the digital divide in Africa, which houses about 827 million people who are yet to access the internet. KaiOS also confirmed Orange’s participation in its recent Series B funding round led by Cathay Innovation.
According to the CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, Alioune Ndiaye, Orange invests €1 billion yearly to cater for the main barriers to internet access – a lack of infrastructure and high cost of the device. KaiOS-powered devices are available in 22 countries across Africa. He added that providing customers with affordable devices is a crucial step towards democratizing internet access in Africa.
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At the Mobile World Congress held in February 2019, KaiOS and Orange announced the launch of Sanza, an affordable smartphone to be sold at $20. Sanza integrates voice recognition, long-lasting battery, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and access to on-demand mobile applications amongst other features available in more expensive phones. The device is already available in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali. It will be rolled out in other countries across Orange’s footprint in the coming months.
KaiOS is the third leading mobile operating system with devices across 22 African countries and above 100 countries across the world. They also partner with local coding schools on training focused on their mobile app development. Local app developers can create their own contents for KaiOS and publish it in the KaiStore.
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