Hon. Rebecca Kadaga making her remarks at the ceremony

By Our Reporter

The Speaker of Parliament of Uganda Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, has applauded Huawei for their efforts in improving ICT and Innovation in Uganda.

The speaker who was the chief guest made these remarks at a donation ceremony that happened at Kamuli where Huawei handed over assorted equipment.

The donation was handed to Hon. Rebecca Kadaga by Mr. Liujiawei, Huawei Uganda’s Managing Director, in the presence of the LC1, LC5, and the area member of parliament among other leaders.

“On behalf of the government of Uganda, I continue to commend you Huawei for your great contribution to I.C.T and Innovation of this nation. We have indeed proved you as an industry leader because of your efficiency and timely implementation of the various projects and as a government we have a special relationship with you (Huawei). We thank you for your corporate social responsibility initiative that you have exhibited today,” said Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, The Speaker of Parliament of Uganda

“I commend you for the Huawei ICT Academy that skills Ugandans and your intentions to take this program in Busoga University, I encourage you to keep going. I believe that this initiative is not only going to equip I.C.T skills but also create employment, innovation and general economic development,” she added.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Liujiawei, Huawei’s Managing Director expressed his deepest pleasure for the opportunity to give back to the people of Busoga.

“We hope to bring Uganda not only these specific materials, but also, more importantly, the development opportunities for the every Ugandan; Digital skills that bring capabilities
and seize opportunities; the connectivity and a better life for the future,” Mr Liu Jiawei said.

By Our Reporter

In another effort to enhance value for its customers, MTN Uganda has unveiled a mobile solution that enables customers to manage their health in order to reduce the risk of complications like stroke, blindness, kidney disease among others.

MTN Uganda partnered with Baobab Circle Limited, a London based health technology company to provide a health application named “Afya Pap” to its customers. Through the Afya Pap mobile App, MTN customers will have access to remote monitoring of their vitals, health, diet and exercise information that helps reduce or delay development of health complications. The App is powered by artificial intelligence for personalized diabetes, hypertension, vitals tracking, meal planning and physical exercise planning.

Customers can download the Afya Pap mobile App from the Google Play store and register to use it. All new users of the App will be given a 14-day FREE trial inclusive of data. Upon expiry of the FREE trial, customers can then buy subscription using MTN MoMo within the Afya Pap App. The available subscription plan is 30 days at ONLY UGX 4,000, inclusive of the data for using the App.

MTN Uganda Chief Marketing officer Somdev Sen said MTN believes in meaningful partnership as a way of making the world a brighter place for her customers and all Ugandans.

“We are all good together. They developed the app and we have the means to make it convenient and affordable for the users. As the mobile device continues to become a central part of our customer’s lifestyle, we intend to create more services for them to use on the phone so they can get more value out of it. With this app, we hope to further brighten the lives of our customers,” Somdev said.

Baobab Circle Limited, a renowned London based health Technology Company with operations in Sub- Saharan markets, the Middle East and spreading its wings in East Africa, specializes in digital mobile intervention programs for remote patient monitoring and applied health signals in the management of chronic conditions.

Spencer Matonhodze, Chief Commercial Officer of Baobab Circle said the mobile application is seamlessly integrated with smart glucometers and blood pressure monitors, allowing users to conveniently test their sugar and BP levels using their mobile phones and store the data, which can automatically be shared with their care partners who could be either a family member and or a personal doctor through a caregiver module. The application also allows 24/7 accessibility to a medical practitioner, nutritionists and sports therapist.

The Afya Pap application was first launched in August of 2015 and is now available in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Egypt among other countries.

The application has won several awards including the Sanofi Diabetes Innovation Challenge (2019), AMREF health innovation challenge (2018) and Nominated for the GLOMO health innovation award at World Mobile Congress (2019) among others.

By Our Reporter

Software development and incorporating IT solutions in business has over the years become integral and a driving mechanism for the sustainable growth of any company, especially Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Founded in 2017, Freelyformd is a Ugandan-headquartered provider of IT consulting services and custom software development with IT professionals located internationally.

The company handles complex business challenges, building all types of custom and platform-based solutions and providing a comprehensive set of end-to-end IT services with customer satisfaction in mind.

Freelyformd brings custom and platform-based solutions to large and mid sized companies in Healthcare, Banking, Retail, Telecom and other industries.

From the development stage to the end result, the client is able to interface with the developing team which creates a bond like no other. Freelyformd offers services such as dedicated developer teams, Mobile App Development, Web applications and Website Design, Enterprise software development, software testing & QA, Security Audit, IT Consulting, DevOps,
USSD, and Startup partnerships.

The company has experience and the expertise to build custom web & mobile solutions of any kind for any client as well as IT consulting, software development and testing as can be testified by many clients.

Students doing the National Final exam at Huawei Offices

By Our Reporter

Three Makerere University Students have been chosen to represent Uganda in the Huawei ICT global competition which is at its regional final stage in South Africa. The chosen three students emerged top in the preliminary and national final exams of the competition which was carried out between October and December 2019.

This is the second edition of the Huawei ICT Competition in Uganda with over 2500 students registered to participate and out of those 100 excelled to the national final exam.

With the theme “Connection, Glory, Future”, the Huawei 2019-2020 Global ICT competition aims to provide a platform for global ICT talents to showcase their ability, compete and communicate, encouraging ICT-related study and drive the growth of a robust ICT talent ecosystem.

The competition participants from Makerere, Kyambogo, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Nkozi, Mbarara, Kabale, Lira, Gulu, Muni, UCU and MUBS accessed learning material free of charge on the Huawei online learning platform in the various courses such as Network and Cloud track. The network track consists of Router & Switch, Security and Wireless Lan while Cloud track consists of Artificial intelligence, Big Data, Cloud Computing and Storage.

These studied and were subjected to preliminary and national exams of which the top three students emerged all coming from Makerere University. These are Magola Kenneth, Okello Stephen and Mudulo Gerald. They are expected to travel to South Africa on 22nd March 2020 to participate in the regional final with other African countries and later in May to China, Shenzhen in the global final amongst the rest of the world.

Mr. Liaoshuangquan, the Huawei Uganda Human Resource Director noted that the competition is very relevant to every ICT student and professional because it’s a comprehensive approach of skills development for employment, enhanced productivity and growth.

“The Huawei ICT Competition and Academy is a comprehensive approach of skills development for employment, enhanced productivity and growth. Training contents in this program has been aligned with skills requirements in the job market. That is why we re-dedicate ourselves to working even more closely with universities across the country to better equip students with the next generation of technologies and create the platform for the Ugandan students to demonstrate they are capable of maturing into world-class experts,” said Mr. Liaoshuangquan.

Mr. Liaoshuangquan further noted that the top 11 students among the 100 national finalists shall be awarded in a ceremony that will happen in March, with Huawei Professional certificates, Huawei gift devices and job/internship opportunities at Huawei.

Through the continued initiative to bridge the ICT skills gap and fostering ICT talent pool needed for national social economic development, Huawei Uganda has been working with government and academic partners since May 2019 to open up its academies in the various universities of Uganda. So far, six academies have been opened in Makerere, MUBS, Soroti, Muni, Nkozi, Mbarara and Kabale university.