Kabissa Background

Kabissa was founded on the belief that technology is a revolutionary force for change in Africa.

Since 1999 we've been building a vibrant network of members who are succeeding at integrating technology into their work - from fighting human rights abuses to feeding AIDS orphans.

What began with website hosting and training for a handful of organizations in Nigeria has grown to a living breathing network of over 1000 African civil society organizations.  Our mission has always been to help organizations put information and communication technologies (ICT) to work for the benefit of the people they serve. At its inception, this meant providing accessible, affordable and secure website hosting and e-mail services. 

Eager to communicate with each other and with the international community, Kabissa members embraced email and mailing lists in particular from the very beginning. From there the technology evolved and the needs of African organizations grew. In response, Kabissa adapted and expanded its offerings to include running a www4mail server for a number of years that enabled users to request web pages by email. A training programme was also established, tailored for African civil society, and information was shared on ICT through a monthly member newsletter and website. In 2008 we evolved our platform yet again to integrate many Web 2.0 functionalities such as social networking for members as well as a member directory and blogging tools.

Since January 2009 we have been hard at work laying the groundwork for a social enterprise headquarted in the Seattle, Washington area. As part of this process, and in recognition that Kabissa is no longer needed to provide Internet services, we ended our website hosting and helped over 500 member organisations move their domains to other providers. 

Given that our membership nearly doubled to 1400+ organisations since February 2008, we are excited to see what will happen in the coming year. As we wait, we will continue to look forward in search of trends and technologies to empower our members.