Vodafone today announced it is working with Sanku-Project Healthy Children (Sanku-PHC) to equip small flour mills in Africa with Internet of Things (IoT) services to provide fortified flour to millions of people.

Two billion people around the world suffer from micronutrient malnutrition. Fortified flour battles against hidden hunger in developing countries, which includes pervasive issues of nutrition deficiency such as birth defects, child development issues, and blindness.

Sanku-PHC is bringing real-time, data-driven insights to 3,000 small scale flour mills over the next four years, with Vodafone’s global IoT SIM and USB Connect technology helping to significantly scale the programme and improve its efficiency. Sanku-PHC has created a first-of-its-kind technology - the ‘dosifier’ - which enables small African flour mills in rural areas to fortify flour with key nutrients during the milling process, in a way that is sustainable and cost-effective.

In the past, one Sanku worker could only monitor 25 mills, which would fortify flour to feed 125,000 people. Vodafone’s IoT SIM now connects the same worker to 100 mills, which will fortify flour for 500,000 people. The Sanku worker receives alerts remotely and in real-time when the mills run out of fortified flour or require maintenance.

“Our dosifier has been incredibly successful to date, bringing fortified flour to communities in need across the developing world,” said Sanku-PHC Co-founding President and CEO Felix Brooks-church. “Vodafone’s IoT technology gives us the ability to significantly optimise and scale operations. Sanku-PHC currently helps provide fortified flour to around one million people and, with this new IoT connection, we are on a path to reach 100 million people by 2025. ”

As a result of the partnership with Vodafone:

• Sanku-PHC dosifiers now have reliable, secure connectivity with Vodafone’s IoT SIM. Vodafone’s in-country roaming reaches the most remote areas, allowing access to up-to-the-minute information on maintenance, power supply and machine tracking via GPS;

• Sanku-PHC can accurately monitor fortification levels to ensure communities are receiving the benefits of fortified flour; and

• Vodafone’s M-Pesa mobile money service is being used to enable millers to securely make and receive payments on their smartphones, further improving Sanku-PHC ability to scale.

Vodafone and Sanku-PHC are rolling out Vodafone’s global IoT SIM and USB Connect technology to local flour mills in Tanzania and Rwanda, and will continue to implement the technology across Eastern and Southern Africa.

Vodafone Group Enterprise Chief Executive Brian Humphries, said: “Our project with Sanku-PHC is a perfect example of how the Internet of Things can improve people’s lives and help make a difference in even the poorest of communities. Connected technology gives Sanku-PHC the ability to significantly enhance efficiencies, enabling fortified flour to be delivered to more communities and playing an important role in helping to end malnutrition.”