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MTN Now Has International Data Roaming bundles

By
Guest Writer
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0

Going overseas for business or pleasure is a great experience for many travellers. Apart from seeing what another town, city or country has to offer different from your own, you also are able to meet with new people and interact with different cultures one has never encountered before.

However, from a communication point of view, travelling takes you away from your domicile country, cutting you off from friends, family and business since you can be out of reach.  

MTN Uganda has now come up with a new innovation to alleviate the pains of non-communication when travelling making the travelers’ life even easier with the launch of the International Data Roaming Bundles.

The new offering from MTN will allow travellers load bundled offers for voice, SMS and data that allows them access the same communication services abroad just as they did when at home in Uganda.  

“Our customers travelling overseas did not have international data roaming bundles for voice, SMS and data which forced them to use alternative service providers in the diaspora. The process of getting a new sim card or looking for an internet connection was a tedious one. With the launch of this new innovative international roaming bundle, we believe this offer will provide uninterrupted communication access regardless of where they travel to” said MTN Uganda’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Olivier Prentout.  

In addition, the MTN Uganda CMO noted that when travelling overseas, the international data roaming bundles will offer a great way to reduce communication costs by enabling one have their mobile phone active (voice, data, text).

“By using the international roaming bundles, one is able to stay in touch with friends and family while overseas, and also means that you won’t miss important calls from clients as they can still reach you on your known mobile phone number while also accessing internet services as it were when in Uganda. This means one doesn’t have to purchase a new sim card and internet services” he said. What pain points does this new service relieve? 1. Endless purchase of new SIM cards 2. Getting access to Wi-Fi that doesn’t work or has endless T&Cs 3. Missing out on opportunities that come and go due to lack of internet access 4. Missing out on valuable communication time with friends, colleagues and family when traveling.

Editors Note: This is a press release from MTN Uganda

4 Ways To Improve Your Bad Cell Phone Signal

By
Remmy Bisimbeko
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0

In the digital era, our lifestyle is totally dependent on smartphones. We use them not only for calling, but also for texting, browsing the internet, and watching videos. This means that a good cellular reception is crucial for a satisfying experience. Bad phone signal will result in dropped calls, bad voice quality, and slow internet connection. These can be so annoying and you can find yourself wandering around the room in order to get connected. Luckily, there are ways to fix it. Check the best ways to improve your bad cell phone signal!

What are the main reasons behind your bad cell phone signal? The obstructions between the cell towers and your phone can cause interference. This happens often in urban areas, where tall buildings can weaken the signal. On the other hand, the quality of the signal depends on the number of people that are using it. A single cell tower can handle a limited number of users at the same time. Or, the lack of cell towers in rural areas can also be the reason.

Use A Signal Booster

If you find it really difficult to connect in your area, then a mobile phone signal booster is very helpful. This type of devices take the existing signal and amplify it. Then, they rebroadcast the amplified signal in the area. No matter how weak the signal is, a signal booster will make it loud enough so your phone can pick it. This will result in enhanced internet speed, good connection, and good voice quality during phone calls.

The good thing is that you can purchase this kind of devices online. Sites such as https://hiboost.eu/ offer different types, so you can choose according to your needs.

Find A Good Location

If you find it difficult to get a good connection indoors, go outside. The building itself can be an obstruction. If the signal is still not picked up, try to move away from tall trees or other structures. Walk around and look at how the signal bars on your phone change. This way, you can find the spot with the best signal. If you find yourself in a rural area, make sure that you move to higher elevation.

Make sure that you locate the cell tower in your area. When you know where it is, move to the side of the building that is most close to the tower. The fewer obstructions, the better the signal is.

A group of Women casually using their smartphones. Image Credit: Pexels

Don’t Block The Internal Antenna

Modern phones have internal antennas that pick up the signal. Make sure that you are not blocking it in any way. Try different positions to make sure that you are not blocking the signal with your hand. Also remove the phone case, as it can make a huge difference.

Charge The Battery

Low battery means that you can still use your phone, but it will impact the quality of the connection. When the phone’s battery is low, it won’t have enough power to search for reception. Make sure that you have it charged above 25% for the best results.

MTN Uganda Eases Mobile Money Transfer to All Networks

By
Boses Muhinda
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0
After shopping at Masters Supermarket, Ntinda, Elsa Muzzolini - General Manager Mobile Financial Services at MTN Uganda confirms her bill before paying using MoMoPay.

In the year 2017, Bank of Uganda directed all Mobile Money operations in Uganda to be interoperable between the telecommunications companies operating in Uganda. This move was aimed at ensuring that customers from different networks would be able to seamlessly send and receive funds directly across all networks.

MTN Uganda embarked on this integration with other operators starting with Phase 1 which involved the onboarding of Airtel followed by Phase 2 which involved the onboarding of Africell. MTN Uganda has today announced that it has completed (the final) Phase 3 which has seen UTL being switched on, making MTN the first telco in Uganda to fully comply with the Bank of Uganda initiative.

Speaking at MTN Nyonyi Gardens, Elsa Muzzolini, MTN’s General Manager Mobile Financial Services, expressed joy at the momentous move which was aimed at customers experiencing simplicity and efficiency in mobile money transactions across all networks.   

“Now that we have completed this third and final stage, we believe that the winner in all this is the MTN Mobile Money customer who will experience a seamless user experience because they will now be able to send money to all mobile money networks in Uganda without extra hustles” said Elsa.

“We further believe, in line with our group strategy, that this move will drive financial inclusion and ensure digitization of cash transfer in the ecosystem while also fostering efficiency of payments. Because everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life, mobile money transfers should neither be prohibitive or discriminatory.”

With this move, it means that MTN Mobile Money customers can now send and receive money from MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Money, Africell Money and now M-Sente customers, directly on their mobile phones.

In a related development, MTN Uganda has also integrated with regional operators in Kenya and Rwanda to enable MTN Mobile Money customers to send and receive money around the East African region – specifically to MTN Rwanda and Safaricom MPesa – with Tanzania to be on boarded in early 2019.

To send money the customer dials *165*1# and selects International Transfer. This is another first from MTN Uganda.

MTN Mobile Money has been at the forefront of driving financial inclusion in Uganda. As 2019 approaches, the popularity of mobile money transfer services will continue to rise amongst Uganda’s social and business population. This will largely be supported by increasing adoption of mobile payments as well as an increasing need for cashless transactions.

To send money to any network just dail *165#

Select Send Money

Select Mobile User

Type in any number irrespective of the network

Lenovo Launches A 12GB RAM Phone

By
Joel Osekeny
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0

The battles in the smartphone industry have just gotten better and better, amongst those being the struggle to produce the fastest smartphone on the market.

Lenovo, a telecommunications company has launched its latest smartphone, so far the fastest on the market with a 12GB RAM. Oppo phones have been winning the race with a majority of the phones they produce having between 3 and 8 GB RAM with none other on the market surpassing 8GB.

However with the Lenovo Z5 Pro GT, the winner is already known.  The device boasts of a 12GB RAM, and a ROM of 512 GB (one of the few phones with the internal storage that huge). The device is also the second smartphone after the rumoured OnePlus to have the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 chipset.

It has a red metallic frame around the screen, a 6.39-inch 2,340 x 1,080 AMOLED display, a 16MP + 24MP dual rear cameras, 16MP + 8MP (infrared) front cameras, 3,350mAh battery, NFC, dual nano SIM slots and a 3.5mm headphone jack dongle for the USB-C port. Some of the features are identical with the previous Lenovo Z5 Pro.

The device is rumoured to be a gamers phone with sales to start in January next year when it hits the market. The device is not available on pre order.

Wefarm Launches Champion Farmer Award For Driving Agricultural Knowhow Countrywide

By
Boses Muhinda
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0
From Right - Asheri receiving his farm inputs rewards from a Wefarm Staff

Ahereza Asheri, a maize farmer from Busheny, Western Uganda, has been named by Wefarm as a Champion Farmer, having more than doubled his own output and led the way in raising the productivity of his fellow farmers on the Wefarm network.

Wefarm, which provides more than a million East African smallholders with a digital platform for share farming knowhow, launched the monthly Champion Farmer initiative to reward farmers who are individually driving forward Uganda’s agricultural productivity through information sharing.

The platform sent an SMS invitation to around 25,000 Ugandan farmers inviting them to enter the challenge, of which 695 participated answering questions from farmers countrywide on the price of maize, the causes of yellowing leaves, and the best fertilizer, varieties and spacing to use.

Asheri, who has won Ugx300,000 worth of farm inputs as well as his Champion Farmer title, had already learnt first-hand of the difference other farmers’ information could make in lifting productivity after he joined the Wefarm platform in February 2017.

He has since more than doubled his yields: this season harvesting five 100 kg bags of maize compared with two bags per season previously. Key has been the knowledge he has gained from other farmers on Wefarm about improving soil fertility, controlling diseases and pests, the best maize variety for his soil type, and the right spacing for maize.

 

In all of these areas, he has now changed his way of working, improving not only his own yields, but also helping his neighbours. “I want to thank Wefarm, because it has helped in fighting hunger in the community and in improving yields through accessing knowledge. It has helped me personally get some money to pay school fees for my diploma education, which I had paused on due to lack of funds,” said Asheri.

 

This has been particularly critical at a time when maize prices have fallen from Sh1500 per kg to just Sh300 per kg. “The maize prices have been so low for a while that it affected my morale. I am, however, hopeful that things will go better now in terms of a consistent market and better pricing so that with higher yields I can buy my own land and expand my farm,” he said.

Indeed, the change was so significant that Asheri engaged enthusiastically with the Wefarm Champion Farmer challenge when it turned to maize farming, as the monthly theme based on trending issues and crop seasonality. By the end of the month, Asheri’s contributions had brought in more new farmers and the highest levels of engagement of any of the participating maize farming contributors.

“Farmers are often the best and most relevant source of information and experience for their fellow farmers. It is for this reason that we have invested so heavily in creating a platform to facilitate cross sharing, through Wefarm and the Champion Farmer initiative,” said Kenny Ewan, CEO Wefarm.

Asheri Left being interviewed on his farm

Wefarm awarded Asheri the inputs of his choice, which were maize fertilizers urea, Di-ammonium phosphate fertilizer and NPK, all which contain elements such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium that are essential in plant nutrition.

“Transforming output across our staple crop with farming knowhow is actually a national contribution when our crops are plummeting on agricultural and market challenges, which is why we have moved to recognize farmers such as Asheri, who are emerging as game changers,” said Kenny.

His win was the second in the Wefarm competition, with Tom Baguma from Kyenjojo district named as the first Champion Farmer. Wefarm is now running the monthly competitions throughout the year with the aim of repositioning the earnings of farmers throughout Uganda.

The Champion Farmer competition is a month long challenge that takes part in three levels: ASK ME challenge, ASK ME + TIPS, and ASK ME + INVITE challenge spread across each week.

To participate in the competition, an individual first needs to be a member on the Wefarm platform joined by sending the text “Join Uganda” to the short code 6333. Then, members willing to participate in the competition can send the text “ASK ME about <Value Chain Broadcasted>” such as maize for instance, to the same short code. This, will trigger other farmers to ask the competitor their most pressing questions affecting their crop. Users with the highest scores proceed on to the next levels as per each stage’s guidelines.

Jumia And Buganda Kingdom Announce Online Partnership

By
Guest Writer
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0
Jumia X Buganda

Jumia and Majestic Brands Limited, Buganda Kingdom’s official investment arm, today announce a new partnership where all kingdom merchandise will be readily available on Jumia.

The Buganda Kingdom product assortment on Jumia includes, portraits of His Majesty – the King, Maama Nnaabegereka , marriage certificates, totems and memorabilia.

The items can be purchased online at www.jumia.ug or via the Jumia App on playstore and appstore.  All sales revenue will go to support the kingdom development projects.

The partnership was announced at a press event in Bulange, Mengo, and attended by Owek. Charles Peter Mayiga, the Katikkiro of Buganda, Majestic Brands CEO Mr Ronald Kawaddwa, and Jumia CEO Ron Kawamara.

“The Buganda cultural and brand products are highly appreciated by millions of consumers globally. Today we are pleased to offer a new distribution channel for our customers to own the symbols and memorabilia that make up the norms and culture of this great kingdom”, Jumia CEO, Ron Kawamara said.

Mr Ronald Kawaddwa, Majestic Brands CEO said, “ We hereby request our people to conveniently make use of this platform to get these products.”

The eCommerce space in Uganda is on the rise, with Jumia receiving an average of 500,000 visitors per month, a 120% increase from last year.

MTN Uganda celebrates “Ugandan connections” in new campaign.

By
Guest Writer
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0

MTN Uganda has today launched a new campaign that is a celebration of the twenty years it has operated in Uganda. The new campaign ‘Together, We Connect’, features a TV commercial, radio, print and billboards advertising, was launched nationwide on Monday 26th November 2018. An interactive digital campaign in line with the theme will also be launched later in the week.

Olivier Prentout, Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Uganda explained that the campaign celebrates how society connects and in turn shows the role MTN has played in enabling people to connect over the last 20 years.

“We are humbled by the progress made by MTN Uganda in connecting Ugandans over the last twenty years; be it connecting families to their loved ones, businesses to customers or enabling friends to keep in touch,” he said.

In the TV commercial, there are several scenes that depict how by people coming together, the country is a better place. Through this campaign, MTN Uganda aims to demonstrate the power of connecting and how beautiful life can be if we live beyond our perceived differences.

MTN continues to show commitment on how it will enable connections. For the next 10 years, MTN will ensure that customers remain connected by enabling an efficient cashless economy through MTN Mobile Money and facilitating a faster and more convenient digital life through providing reliable and affordable data.

“While our products like voice, data, SMS or enterprise solutions are technology driven, we believe every Ugandan deserves the benefit of a connected and digital life.  At the end of it all, our bigger success lies in what our services deliver and do in ensuring Ugandans are connected beyond social-cultural tensions or geographical ‘lines’, everywhere they go” Olivier added.

You can view the new campaign ad at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_8ZqT5K3Ho

**Editor’s Note: This is a Press release from MTN Uganda**

 

Telecoms Now Let You Pay OTT Tax Quarterly and Annually

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Phone subscribers who have been compliant with payment of Over-The-Top Taxes (OTT) previously only had the option to pay daily, weekly and at most monthly.

As I was digging through the USSD menus for paying OTT tax, I realised that MTN had added the options for subscribers to pay their OTT quarterly and annually in addition to the existing options. The team at GURU8 also checked with various telecoms and confirmed that the options had been added.

Also, OTT validity is no longer up to midnight for any plan you choose but rather it ends exactly at the same time, you loaded it for the paid duration.

The quarterly and annual plans favour those who do not want to be reminded to keep paying the tax at midnight every after 30 days. This is also suitable for business and home internet users that pay for long duration data packages.

The cost of the quarterly OTT tax is UGX 18,000/- and the annual OTT tax is at 73,000/-. Well, not 72,000/- as per publication of this article. (There 12 months in a year which means 6000 x 12 = 72,000/-) But Oh well, URA, which is the tax authority decided to go with the number of days approach in calculating the Annual OTT tax hence multiplying 365 days by 200 shilling. (365 x 200 = 73,000/-).

Below are the prices of OTT tax in Uganda shillings.

Duration

Amount

Daily

200

Weekly

1400

Monthly

6000

Quarterly

18,000

Annually

73,000

First Brick Holdings to invest $50 million in 5 data Centers in East & Southern Africa

By
GURU8 Staff
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0
Raxio Data Center- Artists Impression

First Brick Holdings, a Roha Group company, today announced plans for multiple investments to boost the digitalisation of East and Southern Africa with the funding, and development, of several data centres across the region. These data centres will open up new opportunities for financial services, governments and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) by addressing their mission-critical needs for data storage, business continuity and disaster recovery and create a network of data centres able to accommodate international and regional customers in state-of-the-art facilities.

“Economic growth in East Africa is averaging between 5-10 percent across the region. When combined with parallel trends in digitalization and content consumption, we are seeing annual data usage and associated storage requirements increasing by 20-30 percent,” commented Robert Mullins, Executive Director at First Brick Holdings. “From mission-critical enterprise services to e-government initiatives, the digital transformation of East Africa is being held back by the lack of secure, scalable, reliable, low latency data storage solutions. By leading investment in, and development of, data centres in the region, we are unlocking this latent demand in the market and removing a significant barrier to the continued digital transformation of this exciting and vibrant market.”

Robert Mullins, Executive Director at First Brick Holdings (L) and Bhavik Pattni, Tech Analyst for Roha and Project Manager for Raxio (2nd R) with officials from China telecom at the just ended AfricaCom Conference.

First Brick Holdings’ initial investment is in Uganda, where the digital economy is accelerating at such a rate that there is an immediate requirement for facilities to store and process data safely and securely.
Raxio Data Centre Ltd. (“Raxio”) is delivering Uganda’s first state-of-the-art Tier III, carrier- neutral data centre in the Namanve Industrial and Business Park. Due to open mid-2019, the data centre will have capacity for up to 400 racks, delivering 1.5MW of IT power.

The Raxio data centre will be a key pillar to Uganda’s digital economy, reducing the cost of connectivity in the country and attracting global cloud service providers, content distribution networks and regional carriers.
“Data centre installations in East Africa are lagging behind other emerging economies, despite the region facing similar underlying trends in terms of the growth of data usage and storage requirements,” said James Byaruhanga, General Manager, Raxio Data Centre Ltd. “Businesses in Uganda are seeing their data requirements become increasingly more sophisticated and subject to data sovereignty compliance rules that necessitate local data storage and processing. These dynamics, coupled with the expansion ambitions of some of the world’s biggest

companies who are either already active in or looking to expand into the East African market, is driving the commercial need for data centres.”
The desire for fast, affordable and safe digitalisation in Uganda is reflective of a broader need for data centre installations across East Africa. First Brick Holdings plans to invest in several more facilities across the continent, expecting five Tier III data centres to be live by 2022. With a total project investment of approximately $50 million, First Brick Holdings will address the latent demand for data centre infrastructure in various local markets.

“Our commitment to invest in this much-needed infrastructure is a fantastic opportunity for all players in the digital economy, lowering the overall cost of storing data and of operating increasingly complex and mission critical IT equipment. These state-of-art facilities will also serve as enablers, bringing access to local cloud computing closer to enterprises, and content closer to consumers,” concluded Mullins. “Not only that, but it will also contribute significantly to skilled job creation and tax revenue generation. East and Southern Africa is primed for these data centres and they will allow the region’s businesses to better compete on a global level.”

 

Common Questions About The MTN Mobile Money API Answered

By
GURU8 Staff
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0
Some of the tech developers that attended the MTN Open API Launch that took place at The Innovation Village in Ntinda

MTN Uganda became the first telco to publically open its Mobile Money API to developers. Being a new API, some developers, business owners and investors have questions about the MTN API.

We have compiled a list of facts, answers, and questions (FAQs) to cater for those that might need extra information without having to make a call to customer care or visit an MTN outlet.

  1. What is the MTN Open API about?

The MTN Open API is an initiative in which MTN has exposed to the public API end points for accessing MTN Mobile Money services.  To access the exposed API endpoints, users simply sign up on the online portal at https://momodeveloper.mtn.com

  1. How does the MTN Open API benefit Innovators and Entrepreneurs?

The Open API will ease the process of integrating to MTN Mobile Money and also enhance value for innovators who want to use Mobile Money as a payment solution in their products and services. How is this achieved?

  1. a) Monetization of innovation; Exposing the API end points for Mobile Money to the public will make it easy for any innovator to consider monetizing their service collecting with MTN Mobile Money
  2. b) Empowerment and convenience; Users don’t have to visit MTN offices to initiate integration with Mobile Money. They can initiate and complete integration via the MTN Open API online portal
  3. c) More innovations; The Open API provides a sandbox environment for innovators to experiment concepts thus stimulating innovation. Access to API enables developers to innovate on transaction flow vs what a standard integration would provide
  4. d) Quicker access to Market; Once development of the service is completed and testing is done; integration to go live via the Open API takes approximately 10 days as opposed to over 3-4 months previously experienced.
  5. What is the MTN Open API Product offering?

The exposed API endpoints have been packaged to enable the partner/developer to build any or all the following products.

  1. Collections – For receiving payments for Good and Services
  2. Disbursements – Enabling a partner to make payments/disbursements to a list of specified recipients.
  3. Remittances: This enables the customer/partner to transfer and receive money across borders.
  4. Collection Widget: A user can download the widget and enable mobile Money payments off an E-commerce site
  5. What are the available APIs?

Endpoints for the following APIs have been exposed:

No. API Description
1 Debit same as Requesttopay Used to collect Mobile Money as payment for goods and services.
E.g.:
*A shoe seller offering purchase of shoes by Mobile Money
*A website collecting subscriptions using Mobile Money
2 DebitCompleted Because the Debit has user interaction, this API will allow a merchant be aware of the payment by imitating a notification to the Merchant when a user pays e.g. the shoe seller will get notified when a PIN is entered by the user
3 Sptranfser Used by a Merchant to pay out, e.g. a betting company paying from their pocket into a subscribers wallet
4 Gettransactionstatus Used to get the transaction status of a transaction, if the same shoe seller doesn’t get feedback they can query transaction status
5 GetBalance Used to query own balance, the shoe seller wants to know how much they have collected
6 ValidateAccountHolder Used to confirm before a transaction that the user is a Mobile Money user, In case they are not, a false will be returned to the merchant
7 Preapproval In cases where merchants / companies collect money automatically, this will request the user to enter a pin and the merchant can then collect money without the user entering a PIN, e.g. the Shoe seller sells the shoes in 5 installments, after the first installment the rest are auto deducted
8 PreapprovalCompleted Same as Debitcompleted, Merchant is notified if the user has agreed to the terms of automatically collecting funds.

 

  1. Are the APIs accessed only within Uganda?

The MTN Open API portal and endpoints are open to both local and international innovators to use as long as they comply with the terms and conditions of using the API which include among others compliance to regulatory requirements and policies including but not limited to ‘Know Your Customer (KYC), AML Act among others.

  1. If I develop a product on the MTN Open API, will my services be accessed in other countries where MTN is operating?

The Open API enables you to develop and commercialize services that are consumable within a specific market/country. Currently the Open API is only available in Uganda.  In the future, we intend to extend the scope of the Open API to other MTN operations.

  1. Can the Open API endpoints be used for services accessed via USSD?

Yes. Services created can be accessed via Web, App and USSD channels.

  1. How do I get to access and use the MTN Open API?

Visit https://momodeveloper.mtn.com and Sign Up. Sign Up is FREE

 

**Credit: MTN Uganda

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