HiPipo Money

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Education is one of the major keys on the verge of unlocking Africa’s bloom. Looking at several educationists on the continent, these including the institutions and philanthropists, there is great hope for curbing heavy dependency on foreign expertise and exploiting the continent’s immense potential.  The expectation here is, Africans should be able to efficiently manage their resources with exceptional leadership to propel Africa’s future economic development.

Roni Madhvani, Director Madhvani Group believes that science courses are the key ingredients for innovation, and the scientific and technical building blocks of any economy. “Education is  one of the major determining factors of any nation’s economic growth and for Africa and Uganda in particular, it should be steered to innovation empowerment” he commented.

The Madhvani Foundation is a Ugandan Education philanthropist under the Madhvani Group, running for 12 years now, it has sponsored over 2000 Ugandan students to Ugandan universities to bridge the wanting labour market, with focus on science and technical expertise.

Egyptian Qalaa Holdings Co-Founder and Managing Director Hisham El-Khazindar stresses the role of the private sector in reforming education in Africa. “The Qalaa Holdings Scholarship Foundation is an extension of our belief that the private sector must help lead positive change in Africa and Egypt in particular. By investing in the graduate education of 138 of Egypt’s brightest young scholars over the past 9 years, including this year’s class of 17 scholars, we are investing in the future development of the country as these young men and women are required to return to Egypt upon the completion of their various Masters and PhD programs,” he emphasized.

Fred Swaniker, a Ghanian entrepreneur with a passion for solving social problems, believes that many of Africa’s predicaments boil down to a lack of adequate leadership. To help change that, during the last seven years he has focused his energy on the creation and development of an elite pan-African secondary school aimed at fostering the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs. The African Leadership Academy (ALA) opened in January 2008 in the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, and currently has over 300 students from over 35 countries, some of these include Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, in addition to S. Africa.

Investing in Education is definitely a shining torch which Africa should lift even higher to be able to tread the paths of great challenge of poverty, disease and illiteracy.  Like the saying of a great fallen hero, Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” 

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The Madhvani Foundation has released the shortlist of candidates due for interviews for the Madhvani Foundation scholarships 2015-2016. This comes after a month long application period during the month of April and a vigilant selection process in the month of May 2015.

Making the announcement in a press release today, the Chairman of the scholarships committee, Mr. Gabriel Opio said the Foundation received over 1000 applications for scholarships and of these, 300 have been selected for interviews. “We expect to take on a bigger number of beneficiaries compared to last year because of the increase in the scholarship Fund by 50 million shillings to make 700 million for the scholarship package this year. Our aim is to encourage and enable science scholars to pursue the much needed disciplines for Uganda’s Labor market. We realized that many underprivileged and yet academically brilliant students couldn’t afford these expensive courses. With this boost we hope to give more opportunity to the academically gifted students” he added.

Interviews for the shortlisted candidates will be held from 13^th July to 17^th July, 2015 at Makerere University Kampala, Academic Registrar’s Building (Senate Building), Board Room Level VI, between 8:30a.m and 6:00p.m.

The candidates are expected to appear for the interviews at the exact times indicated on the list which is available for viewing in the website www.madhvanifoundation.com and at the foundation offices at plot 96-98 Fifth street industrial area.

Mr. Roni Madhvani the Director Madhvani Group, cautioned prospective candidates to watch out for acts of fraud following reports that unscrupulous individuals were selling application forms for Shs50,000 and promising to get students onto the shortlist for Shs200,000. “As a Foundation we conduct our affairs very transparently and do not tolerate any form of canvassing. During the application period our forms are sold for a stationery fee of only Shs2,000 shillings at our offices in Industrial Area, while on the website they can be downloaded for free” He urged anyone who has been asked for or paid more than Shs2,000 for the forms to report the matter and contact the Foundation offices immediately so that they can fortify their case with the police where the Foundation has already opened a criminal file based on the unfortunate reports”. He continued “educational fraud is a matter we take very seriously because it negatively impacts on the generous work the Foundation has done and is still doing “.

The Madhvani Foundation Scholarship programme is 12 years now, with a disbursement of over 4 billion shillings to support over 2,000 Ugandan students studying both scientific and technical courses. The earmarked science and technical disciplines for sponsorship include Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry, Actuarial Science, Architecture, Veterinary Medicine, Commerce, Hotel Management, Pharmacy, Nursing, Engineering, Food Science & Technology, Information Technology, Environment, and Medicine. The students eligible for the scholarships are needy undergraduate students, who have completed first year of studies at a Ugandan University; and graduate applicants who have been either admitted and/or registered for graduate programmes.

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Huawei, a leading global ICT solutions provider, has been nominated four times in the Digital Impact Awards Africa project 2015.

Digital Impact Awards Africa (DIAA), a pioneer technology research project based in Uganda  nominated exemplary organizations in provision and use of digital infrastructure; web, mobile, social media and digital financial services in transforming lives, furthering digital inclusion and cyber security in Africa.

Huawei has been nominated in the categories of; digital brand of the year, best digital inclusion impact, best mobile device brand, best corporate brand on social media. The nomination in DIAA comes for the second time with the first being in 2014.

“It’s with utmost pleasure to be recognized among companies that maximize the benefits of digital infrastructure in transforming lives”, says Mr. Daixia, the public relations manager of Huawei Uganda.

The winners shall be announced at a gala dinner and award ceremony at the Kampala Serena Hotel on 13th August, 2015.

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MTN Uganda today handed over the prize money to winners of the recently concluded MTN App Challenge 2015.

Four winning teams, one from each category (M-Health, M-Finance, M-Entertainment and M-Business), took home USD 2,500 each, with the fifth team – winner of the Audience Favorite category – taking home $1000.

The overall winners received a further $2,500, taking their total prize money to $5,000.

The challenge was won by Yoza, an Android app that connects those looking for laundry services with service providers using location based services. They have registered a number of service providers on their database and will use the app to connect them to people who need their services.

The winning applications were selected at the end of a challenging 48hours of the most electrifying, inspiring weekend of innovative and idea generation, during which sleep became a distant memory. A total of 18 teams participated in the MTN App challenge.

At closing ceremony for the 3-day hackathon, held on Sunday 31^st May 2015, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Uganda Brian Gouldie stressed MTN’s commitment to using platforms such as the MTN App challenge to help youth find gainful employment.

“As Uganda continues to battle challenges like youth unemployment, MTN looks to leverage its position as an industry leader in technology, to offer youth opportunities to create locally relevant service solutions that can be commercialized to create employment and allow them to start their own business,” said Brian Gouldie.

“In line with our vision to deliver a bold, new digital world, we’re looking to continue concentrating our efforts on the creation of brand new digital applications to enrich customer experience and deliver value for our customers while contributing to the nation’s development and economic agenda in – the core sectors of Finance, Health and Education,” he added.

MTN Uganda will this year also launch an Innovation Lab, a pioneering space that will allow users to use MTN’s technology to experiment and create new innovations; this being a key indicator of the company’s commitment to lead the way in ICT Innovation.

Most of the applications developed over the weekend run on Android and utilize MTN Mobile Money as a payment gateway for most of the services they’ve developed, which presents a further  opportunity for MTN.

All the winners will be guided by MTN Uganda on a commercialization journey through which the apps they conceptualized and showcased will be developed to become market-ready.

More information about the App Challenge can be found on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/mtnug) and Twitter Page (www.twitter.com/mtnug). Watch the press for more detail on how MTN Uganda will be leading the delivery of a bold new digital world.

The Winners:

1.   Best M-Health App ($2,500):

Name of App: Run for Your Life

Team Leader: Adeline Tushabe

Run for your life is a 3D mobile game built to create awareness about HIV, other chronic diseases and general health care. It facilitates delivery of health information by letting users answer some questions to redeem their game-life as the play a mobile racing game.

Failure (while playing) gives you questions while success gives you various tips.

2.   Best M-Business ($2,500):

Name of App: Yoza

Team Leader: Nicholas Kamanzi

Yoza is an Android App that provides laundry services to people who needs them. It targets single youth between 18 and 30. They’ve listed a number of service providers and will use the app to connect them to people who need the app.

The app utilizes “Yoza Credit” which is a coupon system (loyalty program) to encourage people to use the services.

3.   Best M-Entertainment ($2,500):

Name of App: Common Sense

Team Leader: Ssali Emma

The app challenges you by getting you to answer questions and you win points for all correct answers. The points can be used to win tangible products based on the sponsor you chose to play for.

4.   Best M-Finance ($2,500):

Name of App: MamboPay

Team Leader: Charles Muhindo

MamboPay is a coupon-based payment solution that enables individuals or organizations to send funds to various beneficiaries in terms of coupons. Coupons are tied to a specific purpose and can only be redeemed at partner service providers for that specific purpose.

It can facilitate payment for health services, for example, by letting a sponsor generate a fixed-value coupon to be redeemed at any of the registered health service providers.

5.   Audience’s Favorite ($1,000):  

Name of App: Dawa App

Team Leader: Duncan Sanya

It’s an app that provides access to patient’s medical information on the go while allowing a patient to dial a health professional at any time and from anywhere.

6.   Overall Winner ($2,500):

Name of App: Yoza App  

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Multichoice Uganda, a Pan African pay-television company, joined the rest of the world to celebrate Africa at an exciting event that took place at the Sheraton Hotel Kampala. After a month of celebrating Africa’s rich diversity, cultural history and economic potency on our DStv and GOtv platforms, MultiChoice hosted a fun-filled film screening event to pay homage to home-grown programming – particularly the African Film Industry.

“As pioneers of pay-TV in Uganda, MultiChoice is proud to have been a part of the significant revolution in Uganda’s film and television industry for 20 years since our inception in 2005. We have supported the development of original production as well as show cased the best Ugandan content on our platforms across the continent through multiple home-grown channels like the Africa Magic channels, Maisha Magic and Channel O which have, over the years, unearthed African talents to share and tell our stories to the rest of the world,” said Charles Hamya, the General Manager MultiChoice Uganda.

“Through trainings and mentorship programmes like Africa Magic stakeholders’ training, Maisha Film Lab, players in the film industry have had the opportunity to get exposed to international production standards that they have embraced to evolve the country’s film industry”, added Charles Hamya.

He further commented that, “MultiChoice is committed to ensuring that the different segments of the market are catered for, hence the range of products and services the company brings to its customers such as Box Office, the newest innovation in Uganda’s television viewing that allows DStv Premium subscribers to easily rent latest blockbuster movies at just 6,600UGX and keep such rented movies for up to 48 hours.”

In conclusion, MultiChoice Uganda’s PR and Communications Manager, Tina Wamala, said that over the years the company has used this month of May to promote Africa’s notably rich history and pay homage to out home-grown talent in a celebration dubbed Africa Month.

In this spirit, GOtv Uganda, a subsidiary of the company had an Open Weekend where it allowed all active and inactive customers access to all its exciting channels free of charge from Friday 22 May to Monday 25 May to enable GOtv customers experience the best African stories made in Africa for Africans.

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• Price of full DStv kit to be slashed by more than 65%
• Once in a lifetime price offer available while stocks last
• Kits to be sold countrywide at MultiChoice sales offices and agent outlets

With just two weeks to the Digital Migration MultiChoice the continents leading pay television provider has launched an unprecedented digital offer of only 99,900 Shillings for a full DStv kit which includes a decoder, a dish and one month subscription on the Access bouquet.

The price special which is the cheapest ever in Uganda’s history for a direct to home DTH satellite product represents a reduction of over 65% from the normal retail price.

Making the announcement at a press conference held at their offices Charles Hamya the General Manager of MultiChoice Uganda said this is an incredible once in a lifetime price which will only be available for three weeks. The digital migration is a major global milestone which will positively transform the broadcasting and ICT sector. MultiChoice as a company fully intends to play its part in helping the country migrate by making it as affordable as possible for Ugandans to move to full digital broadcasting”. He noted that MultiChoice Africa their parent company stopped analogue broadcasting more than ten years ago and was glad to see they had taken the right decision.

Informing Ugandans where the specially priced DStv kits will be sold Bryan Muwonge the Marketing Manager of DStv said the kits shall be available at all MultiChoice retail and agent outlets countrywide he noted “because of the technology it uses (Satellite Direct to home) DStv is the only pay television product that can be viewed in any part of the country as such we have made sure Ugandans will be able to buy DStv in whatever town or urban center they live”.

He continued by, encouraging Ugandans to embrace the migration which he said “will be beneficial for the television industry as a whole because it would promote quality digital services and create a variety of business and employment opportunities across the television value chain”.

He however cautioned Ugandans who believe the migration deadline will be extended not to do so because the UCC has repeatedly announced they are ready to switch off and that the migration is a part global agreement that requires Uganda to abide by that date.