Introduction

 

This policy plan provides insight into the policy goals of the Mobile Learning Africa Foundation (hereinafter “the Foundation”); more specifically, the document addresses:

 

• the work the Foundation does;

• the way in which the Foundation raises money;

• the management of the Foundation's assets; and

• the use of the Foundation's assets.

 

Strategy

 

The Foundation's core principles

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• Statutory objective: the Foundation aims to provide children and young people in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to quality educational resources for support at school and to develop skills to earn an income in the informal sector. Furthermore, the aim is to accept inheritances under the privilege of inventory and furthermore everything that is related to this in the broadest sense, belongs thereto and/or can be conducive thereto;

• The Foundation aims to generate impact and is not for profit;

• If it is decided to liquidate the Foundation, the liquidation balance will be donated to the Edukans Foundation, Van Hogendorplaan 10, 3818JM in Amersfoort.

 

Mission

 

The Foundation's work is aimed at providing young adults in the informal sector in Sub-Saharan Africa with skills and insights to increase their income. The Foundation believes that the best way to achieve this is to offer low-cost, speech-based, interactive learning courses that work on any mobile phone, including those that don't have an Internet connection (2G mobiles). The courses are specifically aimed at people in rural Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Policy

 

The Foundation's policy is to provide "distance learning" to young people in sub-Saharan Africa to provide them with insights, as well as dispel myths and misconceptions that allow people to increase their income in the informal sector. Because the majority of young people in sub-Saharan Africa work in the informal sector. They do not have a salaried job, but do odd jobs, work on a daily basis and have trades. They often do this in combination with substance farming, keeping some chickens and growing crops around their home, especially for their own consumption.

 

The foundation does not think it makes sense to require any prior education. For example, it is not necessary to have attended or completed primary school. The Foundation thus focuses on the Base of the Pyramid, which is largely low-literate. That is, people often can read words, but have difficulty understanding sentences. Textual communication is therefore not effective for this group.

Videos could be very effective, but while many people have a cell phone, most don't have access to the internet with that cell phone. It's either old 2G phone calls or smart phones that people can't afford data for.

 

In this sense, the Foundation has the same mission as the social enterprise Simu Plus bv, which ran into difficulties as a result of the pandemic and a subsequent financing round that failed. The Foundation has acquired the assets and copyright of Simu Plus. In this way, the Foundation can safeguard the impact that Simu Plus makes or can make for the future.

 

The foundation aims to achieve this by finding (a) young entrepreneur(s) who want to set up a mobile learning platform according to the Simu Plus philosophy and principles, as described above. Assets and teaching programs could be sold to these entrepreneur(s) or made available as freeware so that he/she can make a jump-start.

 

The expected activities of the institution consist of safeguarding the assets and preserving them for the future and of finding entrepreneur(s). There is no magic formula to find these entrepreneur(s), but the search is mainly done among the East African diaspora in the West, who want to return to East Africa. Once one entrepreneur is found for the first country, it will be easier to find people for other countries.

 

An overview of future projects by the institution:

 

• Acquisition and securing of assets and IP of Simu Plus bv;

• Headhunting of young entrepreneur(s); and

• Transferring or making available Simu Plus assets and IP to young entrepreneur(s).

 

Initially, the money will be raised among the shareholders of Simu Plus bv. The foundation is the initiative of these former shareholders because they want to maintain the impact of Simu Plus. The way in which the institution raises funds is by informing and enthusing the shareholders of Simu Plus bv and possibly others about the search for and plans of the entrepreneur in the first instance.

 

The way in which the institution raises funds is by informing and enthusing the shareholders of Simu Plus bv and possibly others in the first instance about the search for and plans of the entrepreneur(s) who want to take over the Simu Plus baton and then the results that these people achieve and what that can mean for other young entrepreneurs in other countries.

 

Because a large amount has been invested in the IVR (software and hardware) platform and the teaching programs of Simu Plus, a huge impact can be achieved through the Foundation for relatively little money in every country where the Foundation engages an entrepreneur.

 

Implementing the policy of the Foundation is not a huge capital intensive activity and consists mainly of networks of its directors in the search for young entrepreneurs. It goes without saying that sufficient funds must be raised to pay the ongoing costs. As soon as this model works in one country, fundraising can also be done actively to further roll out these activities.

 

Within the board, the chairman is responsible for the implementation of the policy and the secretary and the treasurer are supportive and also monitoring. The treasurer is also responsible for the bookkeeping, budget and annual accounts. Decisions are taken by majority vote, while a number of matters require unanimity, such as determining the annual budget.

 

Management

 

Six shareholders of Simu Plus bv have each donated €5,000 to the Foundation as initial capital. With this, the assets and copyright of Simu Plus have been purchased for €25,000 and an amount of €5,000 remains for the time being for the running costs.

 

For the time being – before the deposit of the 6 x €5,000 – the opening balance is empty, but after the transactions described above, there is €25,000 in assets on the balance sheet and €5,000 as bank balance. This means that the Foundation has limited capital in the first phase.

 

In addition to purchasing the copyrights to the teaching programs and assets, such as the IVR (software -hardware) platform, only small running costs are foreseen in the coming year. Board members receive no fees and only necessary expenses can be reimbursed. Payments are mainly made in the sense of making the IVR platform and the content (learning programs) available to entrepreneurs in different countries.