Africa-Press – Uganda. SPONSORED CONTENT
In yet another exciting initiative, the MTN Foundation Uganda has launched its Youth Empowerment Program that is set to benefit at least 100 youth in preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The MTN Foundation Youth Empowerment Program will be implemented in partnership with Ubunifu systems, a software development firm based in Uganda.
Ubunifu Systems has cut its niche in professional mobile and web development with a focus on innovative, personalized and fully functional solutions that deliver value and satisfaction.
The MTN Foundation Youth Empowerment Program is aimed at designing and delivering practical knowledge, skills experience for youth and young adults in preparation for the 4th Industrial Revolution. This comes at a backdrop of the Covid19 pandemic that has demonstrated the immense need of digitalized systems to keep businesses and communities afloat in times of catastrophic circumstances.
While addressing the press at the launch of the Youth Empowerment Program, Wim Vanhelleputte, the MTN Chief Executive Officer, said that this is one of the many initiatives that MTN Uganda has put in place to enable the youth tap into the limitless possibilities of the Fourth industrial revolution.
“Since they are the majority, the youth are a big and essential component in the country’s growth and development. That is why we as MTN have chosen to involve them to stimulate local innovation, which in turn will help youth find gainful employment through community transforming innovations as we enter the new era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Vanhelleputte.
The youth account for the largest share of Uganda’s population, with 77% of the citizens aged below 25 years of age, with a vast majority of them unemployed.
MTN Uganda through the Youth Empowerment Program is therefore targeting a group of 100 beneficiaries ranging from university graduates, innovators and those engaged in Small and Medium with a mission of inspiring and empowering them towards harnessing the practical application of innovative ICT solutions to solve their communities’ most pressing challenges. The MTN Foundation will invite applications from young innovators in Uganda. Training will commence early next year.
MTN is committed to integrating the youth in its programs. Last year, MTN invited the youth to develop applications that use MTN MoMo APIs, to monetize both consumer and business opportunities digitally, a task many of them executed successfully and early this year, MTN and Ericsson awarded winners of the MTN Mobile Money Open API challenge.
