our vision is to alleviate the current state of information inequality that exists between our rural community and the rest of the world, thereby creating a replicable model for rural community development by developing the capacity to provide affordable and reliable wireless internet access, efficiently, first to our host community and rest of Nigeria. The mission of ZittNet is to provide affordable internet and rural telephony access to rural population of 150,000 annually and generate self employment opportunities for 200 youths in Kaduna State, annually. ZittNet will efficiently market itself, install, configure, connect and maintain access for clients wirelessly. We want to be in a position where all our clients are truly satisfied with what they get, so far we have been able to extend our services to other communities utilizing the pay as you go system, which seems the most cost effective for customers at the moment, we will use our internet access to bring free ICT education to our host community and beyond.

ZittNet Has so far been able to provide affordable and reliable internet access and in so doing supported the Fantsuam academy in providing ICT training to our rural community, because of the training provided 70% business centres in our communuty are owned and/or operated by Fantsuam academy graduates. ZittNet has been able to secure and execute contracts to develop a banking software, network and provide connectivity to a micro-finance bank and a tertiary institution in addition to several mid sized and small businesses.

our organizational objective of fighting poverty and disadvantage through the integrated use of ICT is important especially in the areas of micro-finance, education, health and sustainable livelihoods, all Fantsuam Foundations educational courses are ICT related and are carried out online or on the PC, many of our sustainable livelihood projects are ICT enabled and require computer literacy, for instance Zittnet, in health we currently are in the process of developing a database for vital records of birth and death which is non existent in rural Nigeria, ZittNet will also make it possible for rural health clinics to have access to telemedicine facilities and eLearning opportunities for health workers, ZittNet is also facilitating the localization of six languages to improve content and participation of our host communities. Our inclusion of the use of ICT in our integrated rural development projects is innovative in our region and has contributed in fast tracking the process of empowering people in our community to fend for them selves and their families through small business loans and scholarship funded training in vocational skills for sustainable livelihoods.

The ZittNet Vision is to alleviate the current state of information inequality that exists between our rural community and the rest of the world, creating a replicable model for rural community development around the world and developing the capacity to provide affordable and reliable wireless internet access, efficiently. Any organization that has these as its goal or components of its objectives would be able to successfully carry out this project provided profit making is not a motive. It could be a private or nongovernmental organization, government organization or a collaboration of stakeholders but the journey from awareness raising, capacity building, creating a demand for communication access, economic empowerment to enable end-users to pay for the services, deployment of infrastructure are activities whose success hinged on successful multi-stakeholder participation. This is the ZittNet experience.

ZittNet is a wireless internet service provider serving clients in the Kafanchan area, and is specifically targeted towards other non-profit, community development related organizations and Small and medium businesses, ZittNet is based on a social Entrepreneurship model that uses microfinance to support our rural network service and service is offered on a cost-recovery basis, not as a commercial venture. Her business includes the installation and sale or rental of the necessary equipment as well as bandwidth vouchers enabling client access to the internet, Web design, Hosting, Management and Training, Networking, Software Development, Hardware Maintenance, sales of Networking Devices and Wireless Training. Our ISP services entails provision of wireless internet access to clients, this is achieved when we receive access from an international service provider then distribute this to rural clients via wireless radios. this requires the installation of radio receivers at the consumers end then configuring it to receive broadcast signals from our Network Operating Center, the radio is connected to an access point and the connection is established from which the client can access the web. These processes are highly technical at every stage and require a sound knowledge of computer networking, wireless networking, computer hardware and software maintenance to be able to be carried out properly. In our quest to be reliable and efficient we keep looking for innovative technical ways to get Internet access that is of reasonable quality and affordable, this has led us, because of inadequate power supply, to install a stable power backup system that makes the network run independently of national power supply for 24hours a day and 7days a week. The system can charge its battery bank from three different sources: from National Grid when electricity is Available and a diesel generator, but mainly from our Solar array, to power servers and workstations that will run the centres infrastructure and training classrooms. We have also a purpose built self cooling network operating centre (NOC) built with local materials in consideration of the climate which we operate. The NOC is designed with the roof slanting at a 20 degree angle to provide maximum exposure for the solar panels and the eastern part of the building is built with double compressed earth brick walls to keep the sun out with windows at the top and bottom of each wall to ensure that hot air escapes and cool air comes in, thereby keeping the room naturally cooled and saving costs of power for air-conditioning.