The MTN Expo officially opened on Friday as MTN Uganda starts a six month long campaign to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Launched 20 years ago, MTN Uganda’s expo is meant to celebrate the past and inspire the future. Over the last 20 years, MTN has connected millions of Ugandans. Hon. Frank Tumwebaze, the ICT Minister officially opened the expo at the Kololo Independence Grounds. Tumwebaze highlighted the role MTN Uganda had played over the last 20 years, noting that the impact to society had been positive.
“I would like to congratulate MTN Uganda for making 20 years in Uganda by facilitating communication and fostering innovation. 20 years ago, the licensing regime in the sector focused on facilitating the entry of new players in the market. 20 years later, the push is to now have reliability and improved quality of service. For the last two years, we have discussed with MTN on how to enable better growth in the sector and we hope that the results will start to show,” Tumwebaze said at the launch.
In October 1998, MTN Uganda was launched in Uganda when a mobile phone call connecting President Museveni in Uganda and President Nelson Mandela in South Africa was successful. It marked the entry of MTN Uganda in the market. Since then through consistently enabling connections, MTN Uganda has over 11 million customers. The expo will highlight the historical journey of the telecom for the last 20 years showing some of the things that have been achieved.
“However, as we celebrate the past, the future is not going to be waiting for us. We must be ready to inspire the future because the future of the industry continues to evolve. This expo is an indication of what we would like to achieve. MTN Uganda will have two strategic areas of growth in the next 10 years,” said Wim Vanhelleputte, CEO MTN Uganda.
The expo will celebrate bits of history including a museum to show the journey of where the MTN brand (in Uganda) has come from but will also be heavy on the future including having a display and test drive of the 5G powered – driverless car being tested by the MTN Group.
Visitors to the expo will get a feel of what a “connected or smart home” offers as well as access to massive smartphone discounts. Expect to see a connected, smart cow and get to see how we’ll soon manage our cattle herd.
There will be engagement with robotics and spectacular 3D mapping and laser show displays. Other attractions include a circus show, performances from some of Uganda’s big-name artistes, fireworks display and a special production from renowned Uganda playwright Alex Mukulu among others.
According to Vanhelleputte, telecoms of the future are going to enable more the transformation of several sectors in the economy beyond just providing voice calls.
“If we give an example of the connected cow; farmers will in the future be able to monitor the health of their livestock using just a mobile phone. This would mean that the telecom is enabling the modernisation of agriculture,” Wim added.
The expo will close on Monday, 21st October.