HiPipo Money

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As part of its business skills training programme, MTN Business has completed its first round of regional trainings with a session for SMEs in the Central region that took place at Kampala Sheraton Hotel on 18^th July 2014. The programme, which has been running for the past three years is intended to pass on relevant and practical business skills that will help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) grow their businesses.

The training, which followed similar sessions in the Northern, Western and Eastern Regions over the past eight months, attracted 100 participants from the areas of Kampala, Mukono, Wakiso and Entebbe, and was carried out in partnership with Summit Consulting Limited.  The participants received training in internal controls,working capital management,value creation and preservation, business taxation and using the internet to grow their businesses.

Speaking at the close of the training, Hon. Amelia Kyambadde, Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives appreciated MTN Business for the unmatched initiative it has committed itself to and applauded the team for the great work they have done in passing on essential business skills to SMEs in Uganda.

“SMEs are a backbone to any economic development because all big enterprises start small. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives is fully braced to support this sector to see that Uganda shines economically. I want to encourage MTN to continue with this programme, so as to avail this knowledge to as many small business owners as possible”, added Hon Kyambadde.

Reiterating MTN’s interest in SMEs, the Ag. Senior Manager, Enterprise, Mr Steven Kirenga said, “Over the years, there has been a phenomenal growth in the SME segment, making it a cornerstone of Uganda’s economic growth. The successful implementation of this training program in the past three years has encouraged us to continue supporting the SME business segment, so as to support the economic development of our country”. 

Explaining the selection criteria of the participants, MTN Business General Manager- Mr Reginald Kafeero said the participants were asked to apply for the training, and thereafter vetted through the Summit Consulting team as to whether they are indeed a registered and progressively growing business and stand to gain from the training.

Kafeero said MTN Business has initiated a number of products and services aimed at introducing SMEs to new ways of doing business.  He highlighted the recently launched IP Multimedia Services as one of the offerings that is increasingly becoming popular with the business community, as a means to ensure more efficient and cost effective business communications.

The evening cocktail held at the close of the training provided opportunity for interaction and networking between the participants and representatives from MTN Business, and other MTN Business corporate and SME customers.

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About MTN Uganda

Launched in 1998, MTN Uganda is the leading communications operator in Uganda, offering Mobile and Fixed telecommunications, Mobile Money Services and Internet Service Provisioning. As of 31 March 2014, MTN Uganda recorded 9.5 million subscribers across Uganda. Visit us at www.mtn.co.ug and for our football fans www.mtnfootball.com. Customers can also follow us on www.youtube.com/mtnug and www.twitter.com/mtnugandacare for assistance.

About the MTN Group

Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a leading emerging market operator, connecting subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN. As of 31 March 2014, MTN recorded 210.1 millionsubscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. More info onHYPERLINK “https://www.mtn.com/Pages/Home.aspx” www.mtn.com

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Johannesburg –MTN Business has enhanced its Cloud offering with the addition of five new services to the MTN Cloud bouquet. The services, which range from marketing tools to security and accounting products, aim to simplify and improve how customers run their businesses.

“MTN Business’s Cloud-based products and services are already offering heightened convenience to customers and helping businesses across our markets to reduce operating and infrastructure expenses. The addition of the new services will further enhance our offering and increase value for our customers, particularly those in the trade and retail, and professional services sectors,” says Elia Tsouros, Acting Executive of the MTN Group Enterprise Business Unit.   

Among the new Cloud services on offer is a marketing automation tool which will enable businesses to send customised messages and campaign information to up to 1000 contacts. This is expected to add immense value to the trade and retail sector by offering a cost effective way to improve communication with customers. In addition to the marketing automation tool,a financial accounting service has also been added to the MTN Cloud bouquet, which will enable businesses to manage customers, suppliers and inventory items online. Both services are available in English and French.

The other new services include is a lightweight Customer Relationship Management tool, enabling businesses to perform actions including sales tracking, a collaboration tool which allows individuals in the business to share files and a security tool which provides encryption and lightweight packet inspection services.

“These new services will enable our business customers to manage a range of their business functions utilising just one service provider, MTN. In addition to simplicity, we offer customisation and convenience. For instance, MTN customers across Africa can pay for the Cloud Services they use, with either prepaid airtime or MTN Mobile Money.We always aim to offer customised and simplified solutions to our customers to help make small business bigger and big business better,” says Tsouros.

The five new services are available in all nine markets where MTN offers Cloud services i.e.Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Cameroon, Guinea Conakry, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa and Swaziland.

The MTN Cloud services bouquet also includes MTN Cloud Email, which allows businesses to access their email accounts from anywhere via the desktop application or online via web access; MTN Cloud Collaboration Video Conferencing, which enables customers to hold virtual meetings with their customers, vendors and employees; and MTN Cloud Security which keeps customers’ data safe with state-of-the-art software.

END

– Issued by MTN Group Corporate Affairs

About the MTN Group

Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a leading emerging market operator, connecting subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN.” As of 31 March 2014, MTN recorded 210.1 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. Visit us at, www.mtnbusiness.com,www.mtn.com and www.mtnmmo.com

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MTN Uganda today rewarded business owners with fully connected offices with free Desktops,Laptops, LTE routers, Tablets and fixed lines. The prizes were issued after the recently concluded MTN Business “Let’s Grow your Business” promotion that attracted over 35,000 customer entries from the entire country.

The promotion was open to MTN customers and non MTN customers all over the country. The customers had to simply sms the word ‘coffee’ to 0776116666 and the sms was free of charge to all MTN customers.

“At MTN we are very serious about business. We continue to invest into our people, processes and technology to ensure better service for our customers each and every day. In the New World, you need New World thinking fromMTN Business. It’s a world where you’re always connectedto your business, and your Key Account Manager is just aphone call away. It’s a world of scalable solutions that growwith your needs. By employing the latest technologies,and providing next-level support, we make small businessbigger, and big business better. Welcome to the New World of Business.” said MTN Uganda’s Chief Marketing Officer, Ernst Fonternel.

Vincent Atibo,Duncan Twinotumanya and Susan Nakiganda were the lucky winners of a fully connected office each. They have each received four HP Desktop Computers, two HP Laptops, two Fixed Line Phones, One Samsung Tablet 10.1 and one 4G LTE Router that also supports 3G and 2G. In addition each winner will receive a free MTN Broadband connection of 1Mbps for a period of one year. “Our mission is to make our customers lives’ a whole lot brighter and it was rewarding to see the happiness of our three winners this morning.” said Fonternel.

“It is quite exciting to be part of our customer’s business growth journey and at MTN we are engrossed in developing innovative ideas aimed at enhancing customer growth and successes in business.”Fonternel concluded.

Last Friday was Mazen Mroue’s last day in office as MTN Uganda CEO.

For those that didn’t know; the extremely successful, popular, result driven, just a tweet away, people centric, technology savvy; Mr Mazen Mroue was a few weeks ago appointed the Chief Operations Officer of MTN Irancell, the second biggest operation in MTN Group with over 48 million subscribers. 

In his two years and two months as CEO, Mazen changed MTN Uganda from just the biggest telecom in Uganda to both biggest and fastest growing in almost all business lines it is involved in. His achievements in two years can make one think his tenure was for 8 years.

Fast forward, in two years, he grew subscribers’ base from slightly above 7 million to about 9.6 million subscribers as of May 2014. The telecom giant will in a few weeks from now celebrate its 10 millionth subscriber.

In the same period, MTN Mobile Money registered users grew from just 2.5 million to more than 5 million, data/internet users grew from about 1.5 million to more than 4 million users, the company’s revenue and profitability equally raised in that short time.

Better still, during Mazen’s tenure, MTN’s Social Media fan base grew from about 50,000 to over 380,000 fans currently, network sites increased, fiber cables were laid across Uganda, more taxes paid to the government and more jobs created among other things.

As of the end of 2013, MTN Uganda was the biggest tax payer, paying more than 300 billion in taxes and contributing about 4 percent to the country’s annual GDP.

But that is not all. Two years ago, MTN Uganda was embroiled in internal fraud cases involving staff. The CEO changed this around and re-installed the company’s pillars of complete accountability, and zero tolerance to fraud.

These and more brought fresh breath in MTN Uganda and re-energized majority of MTN staff thus performing their duties diligently.

Outside MTN Uganda, Mazen has been the most popular CEO MTN Uganda has ever had. He has also been only a tweet away from resolving a customer issue involving MTN. Twitter users can agree that Mazen replied to almost every tweet addressed to him. That is why, he is currently one of the most followed personalities among Uganda Twitter users.  

He enjoyed his stay in Uganda, visited almost most of the best places in the Pearl of Africa; a land of beauties and wonders. 

I remember during a Pakasa forum organized by Vision group, Mazen told that gathering that he will forever be Uganda’s tourism ambassador and volunteered to be a tourism advisor;  requesting for no pay or allowances in return.

In his last communication to MTN Uganda staff after his Friday farewell party, Mazen noted;

“Yes, this week was my last week at MTN Uganda after an exciting, most enjoyable and highly successful 2 years. As much as I am delighted to take on the new challenge in MTN Irancell, I am also very sad to be leaving Uganda and the fabulous MTN Uganda team,” Mazen said, adding:

“Uganda is and will always be, very special to me. Not only have I benefited from career success, but I have thoroughly enjoyed living and working here.”

Mazen’s stay at MTN Uganda will forever be remembered for innovation, massive success and great customer experience.  

He has been replaced by Brian Gouldie, the former Chief Marketing Officer of MTN South Africa.

Brian comes with vast experience, having worked in different MTN Operations and other companies at different levels.

HiPipo.com wishes Mazen and Brian much more success at their new assignments!

On Tuesday, 8^th July 2014, Brian Gouldie will start his new assignment as MTN Uganda CEO.

Brian replaces Mazen Mroue who in just two years and two months went in records as MTN Uganda’s very successful and popular CEO within and outside office. Mazen is now the Chief Operations Officer of MTN-Irancell, MTN Group’s second biggest operation with about 48 million subscribers.

Brian Gouldie, the new MTN Uganda CEO comes with all-encompassing experience and an excellent delivery track record having worked in different companies and in different MTN Group operations.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Brian, the outgoing Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of MTN South Africa has extensive experience in the Telecommunications’ industry, excellent leadership skills plus he is an early adopter of new thinking or innovative approaches.

“Highly motivated and passionate with an excellent delivery track record across both formal and informal (emerging) market types. Has operated as the Head of a Business Unit as well as holding key and diverse Strategic Functional roles. Able to mobilize resources across the organization due to a strong team and people focused management approach,” part of his LinkedIn Profile summary reads.

Brian has been MTN South Africa CMO for one year. Before this, he was Chief Consumer Sales and Distribution Officer for two years, Chief Sales and Service Officer for 3 years, and Consumer Business Unit Executive.

He also served in MTN Nigeria in different capacities between 2001 and 2005 as Chief Sales and Distribution Officer, Chief Business Operations Officer and Customer Operations Executive.

Before joining MTN in 1994, Brian had worked with MultiChoice and PwC. He also served in SADF as a Corporal.

Where is the new CEO starting from?

Brian joins MTN Uganda at a time when the telecom is having internal stability, motivated and well equipped staff, strong board backing, better technology and more financial resources. He is expected to maintain MTN Uganda’s ever-growing Market Leadership and also seize the new opportunities the industry is presenting.  

MTN Uganda is currently giving special attention to Data, Mobile Money, MTN Play, and MTN Business. The new CEO will equally be expected to ensure that these different business lines continue to grow annually.

The new CEO’s first experiences will include the annual MTN-Ekiggunda Kyo’Mwaka; a music bonanza that will be held in August and the 2014 MTN-Kampala Marathon to be held in November. In a few weeks, MTN Uganda will also celebrate its 10 millionth Subscriber.

Considering that Brian’s a very experienced Marketer, I predict that he will find little trouble in this volatile market.

HiPipo.com wishes Brian much success in his new role.
 

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After 38 years of entertaining Ugandans, Afrigo Band seems to have perfected the adage, “Wine gets better with age.”

Headlining at the sixth edition of Blankets and Wine in Kampala on Sunday July 6^th, 2014, Afrigo Band, arguably Uganda’s most recognizable band, showed that it has not lost even an ounce of the enthusiasm it started with over three decades ago.

The Band took to the stage, thrilling revelers with hits likea man is just a man (Garnett Silk), Just friends, Diana (Philly Lutaaya) before Joanita Kawalya also rocked the audience with Jim. Moses Matovu’s Maria that got the crowd pairing up and turning the gardens into one big dance floor. Afrigo Batuuse and Sikulimba

The crowd, a blend of young and old, Kampala socialites like Judith Heard, Sylvia Awori, Gaetano, and Prince Junju enjoyed every beat of the tunes played.

A quarterly, picnic style music festival, Blankets and Wine is proudly sponsored by Tusker Malt Lageralongside other partners. Tusker Malt Lager is 100%Malt and 100% African and aims at giving consumers a premium experience by showcasing our very own African Talent and LIVE performances by a wide array of artists.

Prior to the captivating Afrigo Band performance, a rich line up of best upcoming afro-pop musicians; Irene Ntale, Richy and Novelle Band wetted the appetite of the revelers who had converged at the Uganda Museum Grounds.

Novelle Band excited the crowd with their diverse genre of music; David ‘mute’ strumming away at his electric guitar with such skill and mastery that awed the crowd. Irene Ntale, famous for her Gyoberahit then leaped onto the stage, singing her heart out before capping off her performance with the song that has captivated Uganda’s airwaves; Gyobera. Her vocals amplified by the impeccable sound system was such a marvel. 

 By the time Afrigo hit the stage, revelers were already at their feet, anticipating the band’s soothing sounds that have dominated Uganda’s airwaves for over three decades.

Speaking during the unveiling of Tusker Malt as the Sponsor prior to the event, Brand Manager, Phoebe Nakabazzi said that there was need to acknowledge the importance that music plays in impactingpeople’s lives, shaping their opinions and recording their history.

She added that this was what informed their decision while selecting Afrigo Band as the main act.

She stated, “One thing that makes Afrigo stand out is the fact that they have given the entire Ugandan music industry an identity, thereby, becoming ambassadors of the industry and also the fact that their music too tackles social issues, particularly poverty and the AIDS epidemic responsible for so much misery in Uganda”.

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Written by: Karim Makumbi

It was an emotional moment when MTN Uganda staff were bidding farewell to their leader and a personal friend to many; Mazen Mroue.

I wrote this article with a lot of emotions considering that Mazen was not only my top most boss but also a unique friend that I would tweet or send an email anytime and he would respond as soon as he got a chance to.

Forget about those bosses that create a divide between them and their subordinates, Mazen is a people centered leader with a strong character mixed with love, diplomacy, patience and hardcore seriousness, call it persistence.

It is a combination of these factors that saw him meet his assignment targets, had his staff work tirelessly hard but at the same time stayed popular within and outside the company.

He joined MTN Uganda from MTN Liberia where he was the Chief Executive Officer. Mazen came at a time when MTN’s operation in Uganda was suffering from poor morale, low productivity and fraud. His success can be rooted to his diplomatic and down to earth approach to all challenges the company faced then.

He managed to freely interact with staff, getting to know their problems and debating with them possible solutions. Mazen made sure all concerns raised to him were addressed. He ensured his employees were fully engaged and their focus was the overall good of the company.

He created a flourishing work environment for us. In doing so, staff morale was boosted and a huge percentage backed and supported all his incentives. Many were able to work late and ensure that all assignments are done on time because they never wanted to let down a boss who had given a huge part of his little free time listening and advising them.

To the general public; he was available, actively involved and always willing to go out of his way to address a single subscriber concern. His active participation on Social Media is one thing that kept MTN as the top Ugandan brand on Social Media. It is not by mistake that right now, he is one of the most followed individuals by Ugandans on Twitter.

 I wish you the best at your new assignment: COO MTN-Irancell.

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MTN Uganda has rewarded the ultimate Egg Hunter with Shs. 5,000,000 from the Online Egg hunt campaign which ended on 9th July 2014, after running for 6 weeks. The 1st and 2nd runners up have also received Shs. 1,500,000 and Shs. 1,000,000 respectively. 

The MTN Egg Hunt campaign received over 30,000 registered participants and over 1,200 lucky winners of daily and weekly prizes such as internet bundles, phones and airtime.

It was open to all MTN customers and required participants to answer correctly to all questions presented through daily clues placed in a variety of media including TV, Print, Radio and Social Media. To be eligible for the grand prize, one had to have answered all 30 questions correctly.

The MTN Egg hunt was aligned to the ongoing “Oh, the things you’ll learn” Internet campaign. It was designed in line with MTN’s vision to lead the delivery of a bold, new Digital World and created specifically for MTN customers to experience and engage with our digital platforms, said MTN Chief Marketing Officer, Ernst Fonternel.

“We would love all our customers to experience the Internet by joining the fastest Internet in the New World to benefit from education and entertainment,” he added.

Thanking all the participants, Fonternel described the promotion as the first ever online promotion of its kind in the market, clearly emphasizing MTN’s interest in integrating Internet in everyday life of Ugandans.

-Ends-

About MTN Uganda
Launched in 1998, MTN Uganda is the leading communications operator in Uganda, offering Mobile and Fixed telecommunications, Mobile Money Services and Internet Service Provisioning. As of 31 March 2014, MTN Uganda recorded 9.5 million subscribers across Uganda. Visit us at www.mtn.co.ug and for our football fanswww.mtnfootball.com. Customers can also follow us on www.youtube.com/mtnug andwww.twitter.com/mtnugandacare for assistance.

About the MTN Group
Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a leading emerging market operator, connecting subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN.” As of 31 March 2014, MTN recorded 210.1 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. More info on www.mtn.com

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TradeMark East Africa held a one day training  for her partners, private sector and civil society organisations which included:Uganda Shippers Council (USC), Uganda Small Scale Industries Association (USSIA), Private Sector Foundation Uganda(PSFU), Uganda Tourism Board(UTB), Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATIN) ,iCON Enterprise Foundation and African Women’s Economic Policy Network (AWEPON).

Private Sector Organisations have a key role to play in contributing to policy dialogue, providing information and monitoring policymaking and programming for regional integration. The private sector aims to influence Government and the EAC through apex bodies.  Civil society participation and engagement in EAC integration processes has been very limited and there is inadequate appreciation of the key issues and of the impact of EAC integration amongst civil society organizations (CSOs) in Uganda. There are concerns that EAC integration, if not managed properly, will lead to further marginalization and disempowerment of vulnerable groups.

However, Private Sector Organisations and civil society organizations typically lack technical capacity on regional integration and are not sufficiently engaged in the EAC regional integration process. Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) has found ways to promote private sector and civil society involvement in EAC issues through: providing grants to support demand driven research and advocacy work specifically research on the impact of regional integration on economic growth, trade performance and social development; support to institutional capacity development; Strengthen communication and dialogue mechanisms; and support to national and regional Platforms around key thematic issues. 

All grantees have to undergo a fiduciary risk/ due diligence assessment to establish their technical and operational capacity to implement their projects. Where risks and weaknesses have been identified, TMEA is supporting initiatives to put in place short/long term measures to strengthen organisations’ financial management systems.

Speaking at the event, TradeMark East Africa Country Director, Allen Asiimwe, thanked members for attending the training.  She informed members that sharing knowledge and experiences in best practices across the board is important.  Strong internal systems ensure sustainability and increases visibility of organisations.  In addition, organisations are able to effectively represent their members’ interest in benefiting from Regional Integration”.

TMEA contracted PSI Consult Limited (PSICL), a Ugandan consultancy, to design and implement appropriate organizational management and internal control systems for these PSO/CSOs including financial, procurement and human resources management manuals as well as policy and strategy documents and tools for fundraising, fraud-prevention and anti-corruption, codes of ethics, monitoring and evaluation, information technology and risk management. 

The objectives of the training workshop were to:

• To provide a platform for sharing knowledge and experiences which have been generated through the consultancy and, especially, to share ideas on further strengthening the partner institutions;
• To enable the consultants to highlight and explain the context, structure and content of the manuals so that partner institutions can better understand how to use them correctly and effectively;
• To enable staff and officials of partner institutions to raise questions on and seek clarification from the consultants on any aspects of the manuals and tools;

The workshop was highly interactive and flexibly structured It was well attended by members of Boards, institutional heads, senior management, heads of departments, programme officers and other staff of beneficiary institutions; and officials of TMEA . 

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Johannesburg –MTN has strengthened its leadership corein Nigeria, Iran and Uganda.

Mazen Mroue, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Uganda, has been appointed as the new Chief Operations Officer of MTN Irancell. He will be succeeded in Uganda by Brian Gouldie, the Chief Marketing Officer of MTN South Africa. Ferdi Moolman, currently the Chief Operations Officer at MTN Irancell, has been appointed to the position of Chief Financial Officer at MTN Nigeria.

Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN Group President and CEO congratulated the executives on their appointments. “We are delighted that we are able to fill these executive management positions from within our leadership ranks, in line with our leadership development strategy,” said Dabengwa.

– Issued by MTN Group Corporate Affairs

About the MTN Group

Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a leading emerging market operator, connecting subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN.” As of 31 March 2014, MTN recorded 210.1 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. Visit us at, www.mtnbusiness.com, www.mtn.com and www.mtnmmo.com