Shiftnet is live in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The DRC has one of the largest gaps between demand for internet and the means to buy it. Tens of millions of people, a young population that lives on its phones, and connectivity that is still scarce and expensive outside the big cities. That gap is exactly what community WiFi providers close: a router in a market, a hostel, a compound or a church, selling hours and days of internet that people can actually afford. Shiftnet exists to make running that business simple. Today it does so in the Congo.

#01What a Congolese provider gets on day one

• Prices in CDF or USD. Your bundles, receipts, reports, wallet and agent commissions all run in the currency you choose when you sign up. No conversions, no mental exchange rates.
• Payments from every mobile wallet. Customers pay from your captive portal with a prompt on their own phone, whichever network they are on. Money lands in your Shiftnet wallet the moment they approve.
• Transaction IDs as voucher codes. A customer who pays online receives the mobile-money transaction ID as their WiFi code, so the receipt on their phone is the ticket. No typing, no SMS needed.
• Agents and cash sales. Print voucher cards, hand stock to agents, and let Shiftnet track every sale and commission. Where wallets are not common yet, cash still works.
• Broadband too. Home and office connections on PPPoE with automatic expiry, renewal reminders and fair-usage limits, from the same dashboard as the hotspot.
• Withdrawals to your phone. Request a payout from the dashboard; it arrives on your mobile money number, with a receipt in your email that names the account holder it was sent to.

#02Charges, stated plainly

Collections carry the same platform charges as everywhere else on Shiftnet. Withdrawals in the DRC, Kenya and Rwanda carry a 2.5% payout charge — the exact rate our payout partner charges us, passed through with nothing added. The dashboard shows the fee and what will land on your phone before you confirm. There is no monthly fee and no minimum volume: you pay as you earn.

#03Also live: Kenya and Rwanda

The same release turns on payments and payouts for Kenya (shillings, M-Pesa and the other wallets) and Rwanda (francs, every network). Uganda continues exactly as before. Providers in all four countries share one platform, one RADIUS, one set of tools — and one help centre with a WhatsApp group per country.

#04Everything else in v0.0.31 to v0.0.35

This is the biggest run of releases since V27, so the highlights only:

• A lighter dashboard. Dashboard is now Home, Help lives in the menu, and features you do not sell can be switched off so the menu shrinks to what you use.
• Customer names. Reports and the home page now show who paid, resolved from the mobile-money network the same way withdraw numbers are verified.
• A smarter revenue chart. Switch between net, gross and count; tap any day for its breakdown.
• A calmer notification bell. Failed customer prompts no longer appear as alerts; they stay in Sales for anyone who wants them.
• Requests that manage themselves. Declined requests disappear, accepted ones queue until you mark them complete, and completed ones clear after a month.
• Agents see what matters. Unsold stock by default, a separate Sold & used view, and a code check that answers idle, active or used with sold-at and expires-at.
• Install the app. Every country gets its own installable app name — Shiftnet DR Congo on a Congolese phone — from a banner at the bottom of the site.
• Network-neutral everywhere. Billing information is now a primary payout number plus secondary contacts with country codes, and no screen assumes which network you are on.

#05How to start in the DRC

• 1. Open shiftnet.africa/drc and tap Start free in DR Congo. Pick DR Congo and your currency during sign-up.
• 2. Paste the one-line setup command into your MikroTik router. It configures the hotspot, RADIUS and monitoring for you.
• 3. Create your bundles, print a batch of vouchers or share your portal link, and add your payout number under Settings → Billing.
• 4. Sell. Watch the sales arrive on the home page — and on Telegram, if you link it.

Questions in French are welcome; the support team on WhatsApp answers in French and English. The help centre at shiftnet.africa/help has the ten most-asked questions and the community group for your country.

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To every provider in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Goma, Bukavu, Kisangani and the towns between them: karibu, bienvenue, welcome. The tools are ready. The rest is yours.