The Digital Divide Across Africa
Across Africa, some students have never seen a working computer. In many classrooms, chalkboards and worn notebooks are the only tools available. While the rest of the world rushes forward in a digital age, millions of children are being left behind, not because they lack curiosity or talent, but because they lack access.
Globally, two out of every three school-age children have no internet connection at home, and in sub-Saharan Africa, the gap is even wider. Only around 35% of primary schools have electricity, and power is often unreliable. Without access to technology, learning stops when the lights go out, and opportunity stops with it.
Technology Sitting Idle Around the World
At the same time, across the globe, another story unfolds inside corporate storerooms and office closets. Perfectly functional laptops, servers, routers, and monitors gather dust, replaced long before their true lifespan ends. Companies, unsure what to do with aging hardware, store it “just in case”, worried about data security or unwilling to throw it away.
The result is a silent paradox: schools that need technology, and technology that needs purpose.
A Founder Who Saw Both Worlds
Our founder has spent more than 30 years in the technology industry, watching this cycle repeat. Every year, hardware becomes smaller, faster, and cheaper to replace. He has seen how innovation pushes progress forward and how it quietly pushes millions of devices aside.
In Africa, he saw the opposite side of that story: classrooms filled with children eager to learn but shut out of the digital world. They wanted to code, to create, to connect. But their schools had no computers, no power, and no internet.
That contrast became impossible to ignore.
It was clear: the problem was not the lack of technology it was the lack of connection between worlds.
Building the Bridge
So he built a bridge.
Tech On Hand was born from the realization that technology’s second life could be a child’s first chance.
Giving Technology a Second Life
We collect used equipment of all kinds: laptops, desktops, servers, networking gear, routers, displays, and peripherals and give it a second life. Every device is securely wiped, refurbished, tested, and delivered to a classroom that needs it. But we go beyond equipment. We bring solar power where there is no electricity and internet connectivity where there is no access.
A Circular Economy With Purpose
What began as a simple idea has become a movement and a model for the circular economy that is both practical and deeply human. We are proving that technology does not have to end in landfill; it can end in learning.
Turning Old Tech Into Opportunity
Today, a laptop that once sat in a warehouse now sits in front of a child in Kenya learning to code. A server that was once written off now hosts digital lessons for an entire school. A router that once powered an office now powers opportunity.
Every child who connects for the first time reminds us why this matters.
Because behind every donated device is not just technology, it is potential.
And potential, once connected, is unstoppable.