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Flavia Tumusiime, Channel O VJ and Capital FM DJ is set to be the  first Ugandan and  East African to co-host   BIGBROTHER AFRICA Opening Ceremony.  It is expected that Flavia will be co-host with IK this Sunday, May 6, 2012 as the Stargame opens!

Big Brother Africa StarGame will see pairs of entrants in addition to the 7 celebrity housemates that BBA announced earlier this week.  The cash prize for this season is 300,000 USD. 

We cannot wait for the 91 days of BBA to start.

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Uganda banks have long been slow in boosting their online presence that includes having websites and presence in social media.  Now that we are moving to a mobile generation, are Uganda banks ready for this era?

Our team did research about the Uganda banks online presence. Our discovery is that majority of the banks currently have websites, alas many are rarely updated (not even with different promotions of the banks)! Several banks that are part of international groups have websites that are hosted on the parent bank website eg Barclays Uganda is hosted on the International Barclays website. This tends to have an effect on the localization of the bank’s online presence since then all website operations and online presence of the bank appears to be directed by the parent company.

Even as some few banks have mobile banking solutions with functionality such as performing balance checks and other banking transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone, none of the Uganda banks has a mobile friendly website that we found as of April, 2012.  In the advent of the success of mobile money, banks need to think better of how they reach out to their mobile clients. Mobile friendly websites will be needed from the different banks to enable their customers or potential customer more easily access information about the bank’s products using mobile devices.

The Uganda Internet market has been growing steadily fast. One of the challenges it faces are the data costs which though have reduced over the years are still on the high side for more and faster internet penetration to take place. The different operators have packaged their offers into daily, weekly and monthly offerings.

 A survey of the available 3G, EDGE, GPRS packages from four operators, MTN Uganda, Orange Uganda, Airtel Uganda and Warid Telecom indicates that two of the operators MTN Uganda and Orange Uganda hardly have daily packages whereas Warid Telecom and Airtel have introduced daily and weekly packages as of May 2012.  The cost for the two operator’s daily packages is competitive. What will mostly differentiate them would be the quality of service to their customers.

All operators have monthly packages with costing that is not significantly different. Hence clients should look at quality of service ahead of cost. This could be a little different if cost was significantly different.  

As were look out for more affordable data, we hope the telecoms will have more flexible offering such as daily and weekly packages from all the operators.  HiPipo 5Star Business and Tech team will publish a regular survey of the Uganda data market.

Data for this survey was found on the different operators websites whereas data from Uganda Telecom an ISP could not be established from its website.

As HiPipo.com had earlier reported, our suspicion has been confirmed! Even as many pointed to Natasha, it is Janette Lutaaya and Duncan Kyle to represent Uganda for Big Brother Africa Stargame.

Big Brother Africa Stargame, the biggest reality show in Africa kicked off headlined by American rapper J. Cole, and co-hosted by Channel O VJ and Capital FM Radio presenter, Flavia.

The show started with a high paced dance routine before J Cole took to the stage. IK revealed that this Season, Big Brother fans must standby for some excitement in the Downville Diner where fourteen couples will be. “In Downville Housemates will not be nominating each other,” IK revealed. What could Biggie have lined up for the unsuspecting Downville Housemates? New nomination system is done randomly by machines, so housemates will not nominate each other!

The VIP Upville House will be housing the seven celebrity housemates. Ghana’s DKB was the first VIP to enter was followed by Prezzo from Kenya, Lady May from Namibia, Goldie from Nigeria, Barbz from South Africa, Mampi from Zambia and Rocki from Zimbabwe.

DKB who promised that he will slap you if you slap him was asked if he was going to be faithful and said he will be very faithful to Big Brother but not his wife.

Prezzo from Kenya who was dressed in Masai style promised to be himself and said he had no strategy.

Lady May who came with a drum as her lover from Namibia says she wants to buy a house because she is tired of paying rent.

Goldie from Nigeria promised, so she will love herself for the 91 days since now one can love you more than yourself

Barbz from South Africa – A sexy model with killer curves she promised to be sexy. Yes SEXY

Musician Mampi from Zambia assured Africa that she will survive Africa for 91 days!

Rocky from Zimbabwe thinks break dancing will win him the 300,000.

Jannette and Kyle the housemates from Uganda will be in the Downville.
           

Flavia Tumusiime, Channel O VJ and Capital FM DJ is set to be the  first Ugandan and  East African to co-host   BIGBROTHER AFRICA Opening Ceremony.  It is expected that Flavia will be co-host with IK this Sunday, May 6, 2012 as the Stargame opens!

Big Brother StarGame will see pairs of entrants in addition to the 7 celebrity housemates that BBA announced earlier this week.  The cash prize for this season is 300,000 USD. 

We cannot wait for the 91 days of BBA to start.

SMS has not become irrelevant and will not in the near future, but leave alone that SMS database and the bulk SMS services that you make use of to send company updates, Christmas messages and news and think about mobile web/apps.  Your company needs to provide more room for communication and easy accessibility of company information to your clients and users through mobile web/apps.

Tech companies like Ericson, Huawei, MTN, Orange, Samsung to mention but a few are strategically delivering Smartphone and tablets for sale on the Uganda market. Despite of this, the end user has not  yet tapped into these gadgets full potential since many brands have not taken chance to make use of mobile web/apps in reaching their clients.

Even as use of these gadgets for some services has grown, we should note with concern that, these smart phones and tablets are not only sold for Facebook and Wikipedia access but your company/brand can also use the Smartphone penetration as an opportunity.

As the MD, CEO, Sales or Marketing manager, how would you feel when you found out that 10,000 users have your mobile portal as their browser homepage on their devices or have your brand app installed and made use of daily?

Uganda companies should make use of this flexible and cheap means of communication to deliver information to the people and keep brands interactive using mobile apps. Your users will share your content, promote your brand and eventually that interactivity will turn into action and hence cash.

Food for thought, recently, the entirely social “Microsoft Social Office 365”, “Your Office, Your Terms” campaign garnered 5.8 million overall campaign impressions and this was four times more traffic from social sharing than the typical Microsoft campaign. Majority of devices used in the campaign were mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

What are you waiting for! Contact HiPipo Digital media experts to help you develop a multi functional interactive mobile website or application and make use of all avenues to win your clients, even more.

You are indeed in love; your hearts are all for one another, but all you do is weaken them every other time when you want to be happy together. You want to take her to noisy clubs, cinema halls etc. Do something that is environmentally friendly for your couple, you will taste the difference. Below are 10 tasted ideas of how you can have an environmentally friendly date;

Play Board Games

When the roads are muddy and it is cold since it rained, have sometime home together. Stay in your house, play board games you enjoyed when you were a Kid, Games like ludo, draft , chess are great for a couple.

Visit a Craft Shop

You fear CPS for nothing, hey, that road has gold on it. Take time and visit the craft shops at that place. You will see amazing creations your couple had never imagined. You have good time touring your own city, but learning great tips to keep you happy. Better still; visit the national theatre shops on a Saturday afternoon.

Plant a Garden

You don’t need to plant a huge garden; it can be small in tins. Get those nice flowers you liked from childhood, plant them together and make it a point to take care of them together regularly.

Have Breakfast at Sunrise

How often do you get up and enjoy the sunrise? In Uganda, many people leave home early at 6 am and return late at 6pm daily. On a Saturday morning or public holiday, prepare breakfast for your loved one and get him/her from bed just to take it together out at the sunrise.  You’ll feel like you are on vacation in Bwindi Game Park!

Check out the Library or Bookshop

If you enjoy reading, watching still pictures, get sometime and visit a bookshop or library. You don’t need to go and buy. You can even read a whole book from Nakumat or Arisitoc for feel. A friend of mine told me, he has read more than 30 (500 pages) books from a bookshop in K’la for free! Why not have time together there with your love?

Visit a Prayer/Worship Place

This best works for couples that share a religion/belief, once in awhile, have time together, go into that church or mosque. Make your couple promises midst evident GOD presence. You will never lie to each other.

Go to a Kids Park

I know this sounds a little childish, but I mean it. Just make sure kids don’t find you at their play park. For instance, Uchumi has a good one around town. Don’t mind what other people think; play as long as you both like the idea. It is all at no cost to you.

Play Tourist in Your Own Suburb

Kampala is so small, but so congested, you need to know your place. Visit the different corners of Muyenga, Bwaise, Nansana, Buzinga wherever you stay. Make sure you do this on foot, you will learn more things you never knew about your residence and people.

Visit a Local Market

You can decide to visit Owino this week and go to Nakasero next week. Go visit those markets with second hand shoes, clothes, etc, even if that’s not your class. Just to learn and have fun seeing those people doing business. You can also visit a farmers market to buy some fruits, vegetables etc.

Go to a beach or Park

Almost everyone thinks of the beach first when they want to take their loved ones out. But this is specially for a couple to have good time and talk as they look at the amazing flowing water waves, eat fish and enjoy beach chips. You can also visit a game park once in a while.

With these 10 tips, you will have 10 weekends of your relationship well utilized, with lots of lessons. 

Over the past few years there has been a growing boom in the Internet market seen with several entrepreneurs setting up classifieds websites.  Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge. For so many years, classifieds advertisements in a newspaper have been typically short, as they are charged for by the line, or column. The internet makes it possible to overcome the paper limits and have classifieds with photos, video, and maps if needed.  In the USA and worldwide http://www.craigslist.org is the major classifieds website that happens to be among the top 10 USA websites.  In UK http://www.gumtree.com/ is one of the leading classifieds website and is among the top 50 UK websites.

In Kenya http://dealfish.co.ke/ has seen significant growth having about 117 600 ads as of April 2012 and ranking among the top Kenyan websites. Dealfish with a vision to be the leader in several African markets has seen lukewarm growth in Uganda and Tanzania.  On the other hand Google trader for Uganda and Kenya is seemingly gaining ground with a visit to the classifieds portal showing active recent posts for autos and housing among others. http://kampalamart.com with over 3500, posts as of April 2012 is the other active player. Several other players that opened shop in Uganda do not seem to feature much growth in terms of number of classifieds posts.

In general the classified business is still seeing slow growth in Uganda. May be one of the reasons could be the culture of Ugandans that tend to be more trusting of the seller if they visit a shop physically or when they see an advert on paper. Many may still be a little skeptical about the validity of online classifieds and their effectiveness. Nevertheless the growing trends on Google trader and Kampalamart in Uganda are a good sign that more Ugandans are going to embrace this way of selling and buying. 

Biggie is a man of surprises and often pulls off shocking moves.  Tanzania’s Hilda and Julio and Zimbabwe’s Teclar and Menata Housemates were up for eviction on Sunday just before they could settle in the house. Julio moaned that “It’s unfair, We’re just getting acquainted”. The nomination for eviction this time round was done by the new random nomination mechanism

Meanwhile the housemates are plotting to get naught and looking for ways to hide from Biggie’s cameras. They want to set up so called safe spot for which they suggest names such as ‘Shagging Spot’, ‘Dark Spot’ and ‘Black Hole’ .

Could it be love in the air? A Namibia and Kenya Hook-Up, Malonza and Junia Kiss

From their Diary Session, Jannette and Kyle are hoping the housemates don’t punch each other by the end of the first week citing a case where housemates were headed to blow up over diamonds argument. Seydou and Zainab Fight

Diary Session, Jannette and Kyle

Many times people tend to misunderstand happiness and richness. Majority think that money is source to all sorts of happiness, but some rich people that have made the much money don’t necessarily live a great life of happiness. This could be due to natural, social, physiological and spiritual factors among others. Below, I explain the different situations of happiness, wealth and unhappiness.

Happiness

Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or enjoyable emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

Money

Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context.

Huge Money can be accumulated through different channels such as hard work, innovativeness, discovery and implementation of new great ideas, luck, gambling and crime. Above all, the blessing of GOD though this doesn’t come without hard work.

Money usually comes to those who are prepared and have worked for it.

Who is rich in Uganda?

In Uganda, the rich are classifieds into many groups and the abilities of the rich also differ from one class to another as there is a big difference between the richest and the normal rich.

Anyone who owns a business, car, house, and can pay bills such as school fees, hospital can be considered rich in our community. But this doesn’t rule out the fact that there are those individuals who own mansions in different estates, fleets of cars, businesses and their daily earnings are millions of times greater than the normal rich Ugandans.

Unfortunately, happiness is not for all the rich, contrary to the state of the richness, it is true that many poor Ugandans live a happier life than the rich, much as the rich have more power and influence to do things the way they wish.

It should be noted that, richness is sometimes a concept measured according to one’s initial dream of success.

What makes the rich unhappy?

Many rich people take time in the coolest places such as hotels, bars, beaches, casinos to have fun etc but they never seem to get happy, maybe because they earned money through crime or those that worked hard to earn the money, become busier since they need to maintain their success and others never seem to get satisfied with the levels they reach at.

In the short run, the gamblers and criminal earners become happy since they didn’t work hard for that money, but have no plan B, after loss of money. Most times they end up in court, prison and dead when they are discovered.

The rightful earners remain striving for more riches instead of enjoying what they have earned and end dying before enjoying the fruits of their sweat.

Barbz and Prezzo had a little bitter exchange after Prezzo referred to Barbz as “Miss Mademoiselle” and “Tyra Banks” to which Barbz didn’t take kindly. Prezo in his words said that “She doesn’t know me, if she pushes me, she’ll see me,” Prezzo told Goldie. He added that the words “sorry” and “I love you” don’t come easy for him so there was no way he would apologize to Barbz. “If it’s US $300 000 she wants, she must talk to me nicely and I’ll hook her up,” he said about Barbz.

Is Prezzo Mr Money Bags? Does he even need or want the US $300 000?

Wants Exit?

Angola’s Esperanca volunteered to exit Big Brother StarGame due to personal issues. Biggie gave Esperanca 24 hours to rethink her decision and suggested that she gets the other Housemates’ views on her decision.

Will she change her mind? Shall we miss her if she goes? Let us wait to see if she sticks with this decision by the end of the 24 hours.

Who has a Crush on Who?

There is rumour that Keagan has a crush on Eve. Will Junia pursue things with Ola or will she go back to Alex and Malonza?  Will Keagan pursue anything with Eve?  It could be early to tell but something could be cooking.

“Stupid Idiot” are some of the words people online are using to describe Esperanca following her want to exit Big Brother House. What it inevitably means is that her Angola partner Seydou will have to exit the house as Biggie made it clear that this is a “Pair Game”…your partner can and will mess you as we see already. How do you describe Esperanca?????? and this situation?