Martin Stimela is Co-founder and CEO of Brastorne Enterprises, a company committed to connecting 760 million Africans who lack meaningful access to today’s digital world.
Out of Africa’s 1 billion people, 350 million own mobile phones – however most lack meaningful digital access. Increasingly, the path to economic opportunity is through the internet. The digital gap between those with and without access to the internet reinforces and exacerbates existing social inequities.
Disconnected from the world, Image credit ( Brastorne)
One of Brastones Enterprise’s flagship products is mAgri, a USSD mobile application for the farming community in Botswana which gives rural farmers access to information, markets and finance.
Additionally, it provides updates from buyers, sellers, farmers, merchants, the Ministry of Agriculture and short term loan opportunities. This invention allows Stimela and his company to achieve important work within his sustainable development philosophy.
mAgri reaches rural communities, Image credit ( Brastorne).
Stimela is excited not only about growth but also sustainable development and as such his company, Brastorne is 100 percent youth-driven and 60 percent of employees are female. According to him “Gender equality is big on his radar.”
Since mAgri’s inception in 2016, it has reached 100,000 users in Botwana and currently reaches 700,000+ subscribers and over 250,000 active users monthly,31% female farmers have been impacted in Botswana, 80% of the users are youth, 60k mobile stores created the mAgri platform and a 250% increase in yields for farmers.
Empowering communities, Image credit ( Brastorne)
As part of the future aspirations of the company , they are hoping to scale out into the majority of Africa over the next couple of years and hopeful to reach over 49 million lives in Africa by 2025.
