West African solar-based internet service provider Tizeti has partnered with Microsoft Corp to roll out high-speed internet infrastructure in Oyo State in southwestern Nigeria.
This agreement leverages Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, which, it says, is focused on advancing digital equity—access to affordable internet, affordable devices, and digital skills—as a platform for empowerment and digital transformation across the world.
Through the Microsoft Airband Initiative, Tizeti and Microsoft will employ low-cost wireless technologies to make it easier and cheaper for people, especially those in underserved communities, to access the internet and get connected to the digital economy. With forty percent broadband penetration in December 2021, millions of Nigerians are still excluded from the global digital economy.
The Airband initiative, say the partners, supports Microsoft’s and Tizeti’s shared goal of connecting more people to the internet in a cost-efficient way, starting with Oyo State.
In fact Tizeti’s CEO, Kendall Ananyi, says that the Microsoft Airband collaboration will complement Tizeti’s existing initiative in Oyo State, where it recently launched its fixed wireless network. “We are happy to work with Microsoft on the Airband Initiative as it extends our mission of bringing affordable and reliable internet to more Nigerians outside the digital envelope,” Ananyi said.
Tizeti is a fast-growing wireless internet service provider in Lagos, Nigeria, delivering high-speed unlimited Wi-Fi internet access to residential and business customers using wide-area Wi-Fi. Its services are available in Lagos, Ogun, Rivers and Oyo States. It is also expanding rapidly to other African countries, with successful launches in Accra and Tema, Ghana.