Farouk Ramji is the CEO of Mawingu Networks, a Kenyan company that provides internet services in remote parts of the country.
Today, Mawingu boasts over 1000 Wi-Fi hotspots, a customer base of over 7,000 small businesses, and 14,000 active internet users.
Earlier this year, it was ranked as the sixth largest internet provider in the country by the Communications Authority of Kenya.
From a small startup in Nanyuki to partnering with tech giants like Microsoft, this is Mawingu’s journey as told by WoK:
The Visionary CEO
Farouk Ramji was born in Vancouver, Canada, to Kenyan parents — a Kisumu-born father and a Nairobi-born mother.
After school, he started his career as an expatriate in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he worked for five years dealing with matters of technology.
In 2015, he relocated to East Africa and worked for two years as the acting Chief Operating Officer for Smart East Africa.
In 2017, he joined Telkom Kenya to aid in running their transformation campaign.
According to him, the experience in Kenya was an upgrade from Working in Afghanistan as Kenyans were friendlier and the country was ripe with opportunities.
In 2021, he was appointed CEO of rural and peri-urban internet service provider Mawingu Networks.
A Humble Startup
Mawingu Networks was started in 2012 by a group of tech experts and entrepreneurs based in Nanyuki.
They quickly spotted the demand for quality internet in the country. Initially, the company’s operations were confined within the Mt. Kenya region, especially Nanyuki.
However, it was not until 2017 that the company picked up and spread to areas of Mwea, Nanyuki, Kerugoya, Nanyuki, Marsabit, Naivasha, Meru, Nyeri, Chuka, Isiolo, Garissa, Wajir, and Narok.
According to Mr. Ramji, Mawingu offers three products: a hotspot model, a home and small business portfolio, and an enterprise solution that extends to far-flung areas like Amboseli and Samburu.
He admits that there are bigger internet providers in the country, but Mawingu is capitalizing on solving the problem of prices, affordable devices, and quality internet.
According to him, there is money to be made in the internet business in the country.
“I like to think of this business as a triangle. You’ve got roughly 50 million Kenyans living in 12 million homes. Only a fraction of these are connected to the internet. This shows that there is a lot of opportunity to be tapped,” he said in a recent podcast.
Expansion
Under Ramji’s leadership, Mawingu has niched on providing internet coverage to rural areas rather than mainstream areas covered by bigger companies.
“We are heavily based in the fringe areas, where it’s difficult to provide internet access. We are working with flexible, low-cost infrastructure that enables us to set up a base station in less than 5 days,” he said.
This low-cost network is particularly useful, as they can set up a community internet station for about 500 people at sh 1.5 million.
The CEO reiterates that Mawingu has no plans in the near future to operate in major towns like Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa, saying the market there is too saturated and that the company is better adapted for rural areas.
He credits the company’s expansion to the Covid pandemic, saying it accelerated their growth as many people worked from home.
“Our sales grew three-fold over the pandemic. There was a huge demand for internet services, as people consumed YouTube content and shifted to online learning.”
Currently, Mawingu enjoys a market share of 1.5% in Kenya’s internet subscriptions according to Business Daily.
Looking to the future, Mawingu plans to extend its customer base to reach 250,000 Kenyans in the next five years, focusing on homes and small businesses.
Reflecting on lessons learned, Farouk reiterates the importance of picking the right team. On his advice to startups, he says:
“You’ve got to solve a problem and be passionate about it. In business, there are two phases; growth and stagnation. You’ve got to be ready for these phases.”
