By Racheal Nuwahereza

Skin Guard brand has commended medical workers for their contribution towards the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Stephen Mukisa, the Movit Products Senior Manager, Brand Management, made the remarks during the general assembly conference for the Federation of Medical Students Association (FUMSA) under the theme: “Global Heath During and after the Covid-19 Pandemic: How Healthcare Professional Students can contribute” held to mark the 50th anniversary.

The two-day conference that attracted medical students from all universities across Uganda was held at Makerere University from 15th to 18th April 2022, and on the sidelines, the conference featured a sports gala that happened on 16th and 17th April 2022 to create awareness of the Covid-19 vaccination.

The conference was among others graced by Prof, Barnabas Nawangwe, the Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Richard Todwong, the NRM Secretary General, and Geoffrey Sseremba, the Under Secretary from Office of the Prime Minister who represented Rt. Hon. Robinah Nabbanja.

While delivering his remarks, Mukisa affirmed that Medical workers, irrespective of the high risks involved, braved the situation and continued to treat Ugandans.

He further underlined the immense contribution of anti-bacterial products such as Skin Guard towards controlling the spread of Covid-19.

“Skin guard stood with Ugandans in their bid to protect themselves against the deadly Covid-19 by providing high-quality sanitizer throughout the pandemic,” said Mukisa.

Mukisa appreciated FUMSA for the opportunity noting that the conference’s objectives speaks to the brand’s directions.

“Skin Guard is a brand that stands for good personal hygiene standards because our products contain anti-bacterial content which guarantees skin protection from germs,” Mukisa explained.

By Racheal Nuwahereza

MTN Uganda, in partnership with Makerere University Business School (MUBS) has today unveiled a youth-centered entrepreneurship TV show dubbed Nsindika Njake.

The initiative is aimed at inspiring and stimulating the entrepreneurship acumen among the youth through supporting them with business-related-skills to efficiently operate businesses.

As a way to alleviate the high youth unemployment rates prevalent in Uganda currently standing at 64% to 70%, with over 400,000 young people entering the job market every year to compete for a mere 9,000 jobs, as 78% of the country’s population below 30 years, the initiative will provide immediate employment and job creation opportunities.

It will also combat the inability of majority start-ups failing to make it through their second year for reasons including the lack of entrepreneurial skills.

While launching the Nsindika Njake program at a press conference held today at the MTN Uganda Headquarters in Kampala, Somdev Sen, MTN Uganda’s Chief Marketing Officer said that the show would go a long way in addressing the unemployment issue that the youth are currently facing.

“Given the high rate of youth unemployment, many youths have taken the right path of starting small businesses but sadly, majority of them have not had the opportunity to get the skills required to effectively operate a business. We believe that this show will teach them how to navigate the day-to-day challenges that they face in their businesses and set them on a path to becoming better entrepreneurs,” said Somdev.

Nsindika Njake is a TV show that will air every Wednesday 8.30 pm on local TV stations with a repeat on Sundays featuring the educated or skilled and the unskilled entrepreneurs running small enterprises commonly referred to as ‘hustles’ with the goal of equipping them with the requisite business skills to successfully run their hustles.

The 12 participants (small business owners) of the show will be mentored and trained by the MUBS entrepreneurship and small business center and thereafter engage in solving business-related challenges based on what they will have been taught for a period of 12 weeks.

Dr Diana Nandagire Ntamu, the Director MUBS Entrepreneurship Innovation and Incubation Centre lauded MTN Uganda for the unique Nsindika Njake program adding that tackling youth unemployment is a collaborative effort since classroom and experiential learning aims at harnessing the youths’ entrepreneurial potential.

“92% of the young people that join the workforce in Uganda go to the informal sector and a lot of them are running SMEs yet they have no experience. As MUBS, we pride in supporting those young people through capacity building and mentorship so I must say that I am very excited to have worked with MTN. While MUBS fosters entrepreneurship, MTN Uganda wants to support young people,” said Dr. Ntamu.

The top 3 winners will walk away with assorted cash prizes, while the grand winner will get a cash prize of UGX 60 million.

The prize money will be issued over a period of one year upon the achievement of key milestones and participants also stand a chance to win instant Mobile Money.

KCB Foundation and the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) have joined forces to increase the employability and income generation of 2,000 Ugandan youth in the construction sector. 

The UGX 6 billion partnership slated to run from July 2021 until June 2023 will provide youth with technical and vocational skills training. The funds will also support the provision of construction toolkits to 440 youth, to enable them to start up business enterprises in the construction sector

The youth will be trained in masonry and brickwork, carpentry and joinery, plumbing and pipe work, electrical installation and welding and metalwork, among other trades.

This project implemented by GIZ, and KCB Bank Uganda’s Twekozese Programme will target a total of 70% male and 30% female youth under the Employment and Skills for Development in Africa (E4D) programme commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), co-funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).

By Racheal Nuwahereza

In a bid to make it easier for customers to acquire 4G Smartphones at affordable installment payment terms, MTN Uganda unveiled a partnership with M-KOPA, where customers can choose from a wide range of up to 11 assorted Samsung and Nokia devices from M-KOPA and finance them for up to one year while enjoying free daily data from MTN, for a year as they use their smartphones.

Customers can opt for a daily, weekly, or monthly payment plan for any of the devices they choose to purchase upfront deposit of between UGX 100,000 to UGX 200,000, depending on the model of the phone.

Attending the official launch of the MTN and M-KOPA partnership, Ian Mugambe, the MTN Uganda High-Value Segment Marketing Manager said the partnership is aimed at enabling the public to acquire smartphones in the most financially convenient way that doesn’t affect their cash flow.

“With the current digital evolution, a smartphone is an enabler for work, business, education and access to information. However, many people fail to own smartphones due to their high cost of purchase. By availing such a flexible payment solution coupled with free daily data, we believe many more people will now find owning a smartphone much easier,” said Mugambe.

Brendah Nambalirwa; the spokeswoman M-KOPA Uganda said the partnership has already proven to be a successful way to accelerate smartphone penetration and digital inclusion in Uganda.

“Customers, who would ordinarily find it difficult to access credit or save large deposits, can now instantly have a 4G smartphone in their hands and connect to the internet for countless services,” said Nambalirwa.

By partnering with M-KOPA, MTN has demonstrated its commitment towards breaking the barriers to smartphone penetration in the country, as well as helping customers access the best internet experiences in the land with the world-class devices provided by M-KOPA.

Customers will also get free daily data of 50MBs from MTN for a full year while they finance their smartphones relatedly following MTN’s repackaging of its daily data bundles to offer customers up to 80% more data at the same existing prices, thus making the internet more affordable and giving customers more value for their money.

The 2021 partnership between MTN and M-KOPA successfully enabled the sale of over 70,000 smartphones on M-KOPA’s Fintech platform, which has financed over 2 million customers across Africa.

By Racheal Nuwahereza.

MTN Uganda has repackaged and launched bigger data bundles at the same existing prices. This move makes MTN’s daily data bundles the most affordable bundles, giving customers more MBs at no extra cost.

In a press conference held last week on Thursday at the MTN Uganda headquarters in Kampala, Wim Vanhelleputte, the CEO MTN Uganda noted that the move is a continuous effort by MTN to deliver value for customers at the most affordable pricing and continue driving customers’ progress through connectivity.  To compliment the customer benefit, MTN has invested significantly in optimizing and rolling out new offers with focus on the smaller, most frequently used data bundles by MTN customers.

The repackaged daily data bundles have more MBs but maintain the existing price, giving customers more data for the same old price. For UGX 500/-, customers will get 65MB instead of 40MB while at UGX 1000/-, they will get 165MB instead of 100MBs.

 “We have revised our daily data offers permanently to give more value to our customers, because it’s our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life. We hope these bundles with bigger MBs will support our customers recover from the effects of the lockdown, whether in business, education or otherwise,” Vanhelleputte commented.

The ministry of finance planning and economic development says its taking key steps to enforce and enhance a better management of the national debt as a strategy to  ensure that it remains sustainable

According to the Bank of Uganda report, our public debt stood at 19 billion dollars which is approximately 70.4 trillion shillings by 1^st July this year.

The permanent secretary ministry of finance planning and economic development also secretary to the treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi says that at the moment the national debt remains sustainable as he also dismissed fears that Uganda has over borrowed

Meanwhile Ggoobi believes that reforms being conducted especially in handling procurement will help address corruption.

Sacco administrators have been challenged  to create an environment which attracts people to save their money with trust. The call was sounded Elly Katunguka, the vice chancellor Kyambogo university at the  fundraising in Kampala for Buturo Sacco in Bushenyi district.

Katunguka noted that people get frustrated with the corruption and entrenched embezzlement of members funds by the management of SACCOs. He hailed Buturo Sacco for being a role model with trust of people’s money ,transforming people’s mindset on saving and encouraging them to work to fight against poverty.

Pison Mugizi, the Sacco patron said Buturo Sacco is now controlled by bank of Uganda and will soon be recognized as a microfinance deposit institution (MDI).

On his own, Benson Barigye, the chairman board attributed this achievement to good monitoring the board has on people’s money and good management designed with good teamwork.