Government agencies, marine NGOs, and fishing communities generate rich data — but it sits in silos, unusable and invisible. We build the systems that connect it.
Coastal communities, fisheries departments, and conservation NGOs across East Africa face a common set of interconnected challenges.
Catch registers, BMU governance records, socioeconomic surveys, and spatial datasets live in incompatible formats across dozens of institutions — impossible to query together.
Fisheries managers make decisions without access to current data. By the time reports are compiled, the situation on the water has changed significantly.
Donor-funded projects require rigorous M&E, but field teams still rely on paper forms and spreadsheets. Reporting is slow, inconsistent, and prone to error.
Critical decisions about fishing grounds, mangrove boundaries, and marine protected areas are made without proper spatial data — because the maps don't exist.
Women's savings groups, Beach Management Units, and self-help groups lack digital tools for accounting, loan tracking, and business management.
Many organizations have invested in ICT systems that were never maintained, trained-for, or integrated — creating expensive technical debt with no lasting value.
We are not a generic IT firm. Our consultants have worked directly inside coastal and marine programmes for over a decade.
We understand BMU governance, EBM frameworks, KoBoCollect workflows, and donor reporting requirements — because we've worked inside them.
From requirements gathering and UX design to deployment, staff training, and ongoing maintenance — we own the entire delivery lifecycle.
Our work is published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at WIOMSA symposia. The rigour of academic research underlies every system we build.
Fragmented data is the primary bottleneck in coastal resource management. We design and build centralised database systems that unify catch registers, governance records, socioeconomic surveys, and spatial datasets — making them queryable, shareable, and secure.
Our flagship delivery was the Kenya National Marine Fisheries Information System (KNMFIS) for Kenya Fisheries Service, a live production system handling inshore and offshore fisheries data for all coastal counties.
Multi-source data integration across BMUs, KoBoCollect, and legacy spreadsheets into a unified schema.
Role-based access for national agencies, county departments, NGOs, and field teams.
Scheduled report generation for donor compliance, management decisions, and regulatory submissions.
RESTful APIs connect to external systems including bulk SMS, GIS layers, and national registries.
Decisions about fishing ground boundaries, mangrove extent, MPA zoning, and port city land use require accurate spatial data. We produce publication-quality maps and interactive GIS platforms grounded in remote sensing, field surveys, and community knowledge.
Our GIS work spans from SAR-based mangrove forest carbon monitoring (RCMRD/SERVIR) to fishing ground mapping across the Malindi-Watamu seascape — including gear type, seasonal variation, and fisher origin.
Spatial mapping of fishing activity patterns by gear type, origin, and season for BMU management plans.
SAR and optical imagery for mangrove, land cover change, and coastal habitat classification.
Folium and Leaflet-based interactive maps deployable in dashboards and web portals.
Decision support tools integrating economic and environmental layers for informed MSP processes.
We build web platforms and mobile applications designed for East African field conditions — intermittent connectivity, varied device capability, and multilingual users. Every interface is tested for real-world use, not just demo environments.
Our mobile work includes KoBoCollect-based data collection, React Native cross-platform apps, and Android applications for fish traceability, solid waste management, and SACCO administration.
Applications that capture and sync data even when connectivity is unavailable.
Transparency and participation platforms for county budgets, NGO programmes, and community funds.
Virtual classroom systems deployed across colleges, supporting exams, chat, and attendance.
Full-featured member registration, loan workflow, and accounting automation for SACCOs.
We design M&E frameworks from the ground up and build the digital infrastructure to support them — from KPI dashboards and indicator tracking to automated impact reports and donor-compliant output visualizations.
Our COMRED Programme M&E Portal combines Leaflet maps, Gantt charts, and indicator dashboards in a single web platform deployed on a VPS. We also build Power BI and Tableau dashboards integrated with field data pipelines.
Custom web portals with indicator tracking, beneficiary maps, and automated progress reports.
Real-time dashboards connected to field data — for staff appraisals, project outputs, and community metrics.
End-to-end survey design, KoBoCollect deployment, data cleaning, and analysis pipelines.
Community impact assessments combining qualitative interviews, socioeconomic surveys, and statistical analysis.
Our published research and applied deployments span route optimization for solid waste collection, sentiment analysis of fishing community social media, NLP-based monitoring, and predictive modelling for fisheries stock assessment.
We apply ML where it provides demonstrable uplift over conventional methods — not as a default, but as a rigorous choice supported by validation data.
Route optimization and resource allocation models using GIS + ML for urban and coastal services.
Deep learning models for analysing community feedback, compliance signals, and social media data.
Time-series forecasting and pattern detection for fisheries management and environmental monitoring.
Mapping relationships and information flows within research networks and community governance structures.
Fishing communities and women's savings groups need practical digital tools, not enterprise software. We design Excel-based financial management workbooks with VBA automation, loan tracking dashboards, and group accounting systems tailored for low-connectivity environments.
Our community tool work includes Excel workbooks for SAMAHCO and Baharini Women Groups, business plans for six coastal self-help groups, and group management systems for mangrove conservation monitoring.
Automated Excel workbooks with VBA macros for contributions, loans, interest, and share calculations.
Structured business plan templates and financial projections for community enterprise groups.
Mangrove replanting, community patrol, and biodiversity monitoring trackers for BMU field teams.
Digital literacy training programmes tailored for fishing community stakeholders and BMU leadership.
Every engagement follows a structured six-phase methodology refined over 13 years of ICT delivery in coastal and development contexts.
Identify all system users, data owners, and decision-makers. Conduct structured interviews with key personnel.
Inventory all existing data sources, assess quality, identify gaps and integration opportunities.
Document functional and non-functional requirements. Review with client, iterate, and obtain formal approval before proceeding.
Database schema, server architecture, and API structure designed for scalability and field-condition resilience.
Wireframes and interactive prototypes produced and reviewed by end users — including field officers and community members.
Full design package presented to client and signed off. Changes requested here cost far less than changes made during build.
Database, authentication, core data models, and primary user interfaces. First demo at Week 9.
Secondary modules built and integrated. API connections to external systems established. Second demo at Week 12.
All modules integrated. Dashboards, reports, and GIS layers connected. Client feedback incorporated. Final demo at Week 16.
Real users test the system in a staging environment. Issues logged, triaged, and fixed before production deployment.
Penetration testing, load simulation, and data validation checks. SSL, backup automation, and failover configured.
Production deployment with DNS cutover, data migration, and real-time monitoring enabled. Greybox team on-call for 72 hours post-launch.
System administrators trained on user management, data backups, report generation, and security protocols.
Field officers and data entry staff trained in their specific workflows. Community group training held in local languages.
Full documentation package handed over. Client signs off on system acceptance. Support agreement activated.
System performance audit, user adoption assessment, and first round of refinements based on real-world usage data.
Security monitoring, uptime assurance, and proactive identification of performance issues before they affect users.
Structured annual process to gather new requirements and incorporate them — keeping the system aligned with your evolving programme.
Greybox Consulting Limited was founded by practitioners who spent years inside coastal resource management programmes — not as vendors observing from outside, but as analysts, coordinators, and developers embedded in the work.
Titus is a researcher, software developer, and data scientist with over 13 years of experience in ICT consultancy, coastal and marine resource management, GIS, and sustainable development. Currently pursuing a PhD in Information Technology at the Technical University of Mombasa, focused on spatial analysis and machine learning for sustainable development.
He serves as Programme Manager at COMRED, managing DEFRA, EU, DanChurchAid, and IUCN-funded projects across the Malindi-Watamu seascape. His consultancy work spans WIOMSA, Kenya Fisheries Service, Fauna & Flora International, and the Nairobi Convention Secretariat.
Tell us about your data challenge. We'll respond within one working day with an initial assessment — no commitment required.