The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
They are not only in business to compete and attract customers in their line of business, but are also warming up to compete for Uganda’s Digital Brand of the Year award for 2019 organised by an entity dubbed HiPipo.
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | The two leading telecom firms – Airtel and MTN and four top banks – Centenary, DFCU, Stanbic and Standard Chartered Bank are facing off for the award.
The grand finale is scheduled for Sept.20 at the Kampala Serena Hotel. On the same day, there will be a Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit where sector experts and government will exchange ideas.
The summit will explore the strategic trends that are shaping the future of Uganda’s information technology sector.
This is going to be the 6th time that corporate firms are competing for this top award among other junior accolades.
Digital Impact Awards Africa is Africa’s most important gathering of C-Level Executives, and senior Digital and IT executives. The overall objective of the awards is to encourage firms to use modern technology to efficiently and effectively deliver services to their clients.
Innocent Kawooya, the CEO of HiPipo told The Independent on August 22 that nominations were conducted in the months of June and July and that submissions were received from about 113 organizations and individuals and only a few made it to the nomination list.
“Those that ticked all the boxes were shortlisted while those that were below par didn’t make it to the list,” Kawooya said.
The six shortlisted nominees for Digital Brand of the Year (the overall award) were assessed basing on their digital first approach to changing the lives of Ugandans, mainly disadvantaged communities – women, youth and people living with disabilities.
This year’s award event is coming at a time the government of Uganda is investing in the ICT infrastructure like the National Backbone Infrastructure and ICT hubs aimed at supporting businesses and government ministries and departments to use technology to fast offer services to the population.
Finance Minister Matia Kasaija allocated the ICT sector a budget of Shs146bn in the current financial year down from Shs149bn in FY2018/2019.
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