Poa! Internet

Poa Internet Ltd is a low-cost Internet service provider that develops and delivers unlimited, affordable internet to individuals, households, and small businesses in Nairobi, in particular in the poor and underserved communities.

Poa offers broadband services and public Wi-Fi hotspots. It buys fibre connection bandwidth from existing telecom companies and relays the signal to their network of own towers connecting them to customers’ antennas, which allows clients to receive bandwidth via radio frequencies.

Today, the company serves more than 10,000 customers via >60 towers and is expected to scale across Kenya and East Africa. Construction of the towers requires limited time (3-5 days), limited workforce and limited surface. These are significantly lighter, lower powered and less impacting than traditional cell towers. The towers operate from grid power and consumes between 50-150W each, which is supplied by the landlord of the building. The towers provide service to customers via Distribution Points (DPs). Poa generally constructs the DPs themselves, but often rent space on existing cell towers operated for the Entry Towers.

Technical assistance

The technical assistance is aimed at defining and implementing an Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) adapted to Poa’s context, including a set of policies, procedures, tools and trainings.

Expected impact

• Raising awareness to E&S risks and defining measures to mitigate these.
• Managing the E&S risks by implementing a sound ESMS