Emirates, the world’s largest international airline, has won the Aviation 100 ‘Middle East & Africa Airline of the Year’, awarded by Airline Economics magazine. The Aviation 100 awards recognise aviation’s most outstanding performers, as well as the most innovative and successful finance and leasing deals, closed in the last 12 months. The awards were held during the Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Dubai 2018 conference gala dinner.

Emirates and its financing partners also won ‘Deal of the Year for Innovation’, which resulted from a leasing transaction of five Airbus A380s. Nirmal Govindadas, Senior Vice President Corporate Treasury received both awards on behalf of Emirates earlier this week.
Winners of the Aviation 100 awards are decided by an industry-wide survey, a rigorous vetting process and editorial consideration.

The Emirates Aviation 100 ‘Airline of the Year’ accolade was won based on the airline’s financial and revenue per passenger kilometres (RPK) performance, aircraft orders, as well as network and fleet expansion activity.

In the 2017-18 financial year, Emirates delivered a solid performance, increasing its revenue to AED 92.3 billion (US$25.2 billion), and posting a profit of AED 2.8 billion (US$762 million). The airline carried more than 58 million passengers and 2.6 million tonnes of cargo. In 2017, Emirates also clocked in 289 million scheduled passenger kilometres flown (RPKMs).

Emirates has progressively grown its network and today flies to over 160 destinations across 86 countries and territories, in addition to entering into several strategic partnerships, including an extensive codeshare with FlyDubai. Today, the codeshare partnership offers a combined network of over 200 unique destinations, providing more travel opportunities and connections for customers. The airline will remain focused on stimulating customer demand while delivering a great experience onboard a fleet that is among the youngest in the industry.

Emirates also made global headlines with two significant commitments for new aircraft in the last year. At the 2017 Dubai Airshow, the airline announced a US $15.1 billion agreement for 40 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners, with delivery commencing in 2022. In early 2018, Emirates reinforced its commitment to the Airbus A380 programme with a US $16 billion deal for an additional 36 aircraft. The airline remains the world’s largest operator of the Boeing 777 and A380, and the orders made in the past year underline Emirates’ commitment to operating a wide-body fleet of aircraft that allows for continuous product enhancements and innovations.

In the last twelve months, the airline has also proved that it was an industry trendsetter when it comes to product innovations when it revealed its new Boeing 777-300ER game-changing fully enclosed 40 square feet private suites. The new B777 First Class private suites showcased the latest in cutting-edge onboard technologies, including a NASA inspired ‘zero-gravity’ seating position, ‘virtual windows’ for middle aisle suites, and a personal video-call service, along with unique lighting and climate control features.

The Emirates Boeing 777-200LR fleet also underwent a renovation with a new Business Class cabin featuring a configuration with wider seats in a 2-2-2 layout. Emirates’ new A380 OnBoard Lounge has also debuted with a revamped look, more seating options, mood lighting, and other technological features.

Emirates customers across all classes continue to enjoy regionally inspired dishes, and an abundance of entertainment options with the industry’s most comprehensive in-flight entertainment system, ice. The 14-time “best in-flight entertainment system” at the Skytrax awards offers an unparalleled 3,500 channels in over 40 languages, including close to 900 movies from around the world.

This is a Press Release From Emirates

In line with its focus on bringing people together and supporting the development of connected communities, Facebook has announced the names of 116 people worldwide who have been selected to join the Facebook Community Leadership Program. Around a dozen African community leaders have been selected to become programme residents and fellows.

“Many community leaders worldwide and in Africa turn to Facebook to create connections through Facebook groups, WhatsApp or Messenger,” says Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director Facebook Africa. “This programme is all about empowering them with the tools, support and funding they need to advance their causes and build their communities.”

Since announcing the programme in February, Facebook received more than 6,000 applications from all over the world. A selection committee, which included employees as well as community experts from outside of Facebook, reviewed each application to identify leaders with a strong, clear and committed vision for their community.

Five participants have been selected globally as community Leaders in Residence, each will be awarded up to $1,000,000 to fund their community initiative. The final amount received will be determined based on the final budget proposal created and submitted by each resident as part of their program training.

Kenya’s Noah Nasiali, the selected leader in residence for Africa, has brought together more than 100,000 farmers across Africa through a Facebook group in less than a year. Farming is one of Africa’s most important industries, and Noah’s community helps farmers obtain and share critical information.

“Africa Farmers Club was formed to help farmers come together to access credible, reliable and applicable farming information that will help them develop their skills and most importantly help them to get a market for their products and in the end get returns for their hard work. I invite group members to share their stories both positive and negative through pictures so that we can learn together.

Whenever possible I personally visit members face-to-face to see for myself their challenges and we discuss how they can overcome and at the same time and improve. Our community aims to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal which is to End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.” Said Nasiali

The programme will also host more than 100 fellows and youth participants who will receive up to $50,000 each to be used for their community initiative.

Savio Lule Mark, The Youth Hub Uganda (Uganda); They provide guidance and to nature Ugandan Youth who use their Art, Music, Fashion and sports to impact positively to their communities. The Youth Hub helps Ugandan youth to realize their skills and talents and develop them to create a greater community and country at large through educating, empowering and inspiring youth and community development.

The Others include;

Felista Wangari, 52-Week Savings Challenge (Kenya)
Pamellah Oduor, Let’s Cook Kenyan Meals (Kenya)
Asha Mweru, #WomenWorkKE (Kenya)
Caroline Kihusa, Still A Mum (Kenya)
Truphosah Monah, Women And Realities of Disability Society (Kenya)
Anike Lawal, Mamalette (Nigeria)
Mamadou Sy, Docteur Nakamou (Senegal)
Gabriel Hoosain Khan, LGBTI community, Human Rights (South Africa)
Lusanda Magwape, Dream Factory Foundation (South Africa)
Nadine Maselle. Salt River High Tutoring (South Africa)

“Our group of African fellows and our resident represent diverse perspectives from different parts of the continent, but they share a common goal of helping their communities thrive. We know they will do great things over the next year and we’re excited to get them started,” says Ime Archibong, Vice President, Product Partnerships at Facebook.

On September 21, 2018, the Estonian think tank and company, the E-Governance Academy Foundation Company ranked Uganda number 1 in Africa in the National Cyber Security Index, with an index of 49.35.

The index is a global study covering up to 109 states that are included in the study. Uganda globally took the 40 positions, ahead of Mauritius that came in number 43 globally, and 2 in Africa, Nigeria at 45, 3 in Africa. Uganda was ahead of a number of other developed countries including Israel at number 42, Iceland 44, China 62 and South Africa at number 75.

The study revealed areas where Uganda has performed very well with 50% and above earned, while other areas revealed underperformance where the Ugandans and government should respond in order to improve the cybersecurity of the nation.
Good performance was recorded in cyber threat analysis and information at 80%, protection of digital services stood 80%, the education and professional development at 78%, de-identification and trust services 67%, cyber incident response, fight against cybercrime, and protection of essential services all standing at 50%.

Worst performance that led to decline in global rankings was in the development of cybersecurity policy at 29%, protection of personal data 25%, contribution to global security stood at 17%, cyber crisis management and military cyber operations all standing at 0%. The rankings somewhat indicate how to secure internet usage is in the country, building more trust in the endeavours of the government to improve cybersecurity in the country.

The National Social Security Fund has upgraded their Mobile Application dubbed NSSFGO App to include access to more self – services and improve customer experience. Some of the new features added include contributions payments for voluntary savers and employers whose payments are less than shs4m monthly, member contacts update, retirement benefits projections, employment history, e-statement and direct contact to Relationship Manager.

Addressing media and selected members at Café Javas, Patrick Ayota, the Deputy Managing Director, said that the app was an affirmation of the Fund’s commitment to transparency to its members by giving them access to monitor their NSSF accounts anytime, anywhere.

“Our plan is to improve our business processes to make them more efficient & convenient to members through innovations by 2025. The new app not only increases efficiency and service delivery to our customers but also puts the power and control of their money in their hands” he said.

The upgraded app also gives members an opportunity to track their savings in a more detailed way and hold their employers accountable regarding their contributions.

“We expect to increase the compliance levels now that members are able to access more details of their account statement easily, like when last contributions were made, how much they received in a particular month, total contributions made by each of their employers including the first and current ones,” Ayota said.

In the future, more features will be added to the app to include both member and employer registrations without having to NSSF offices. This will be through partnerships with the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) and Uganda Registration Services Bureau. In addition, eligible members will be able to initiate their benefits claims and track progress using the NSSF Go app.

The NSSF Go App is part of a variety of electronic channels the Fund introduced to improve its service delivery. Other e-services channels include; The E-collections portal that allows employers to remit their employees’ contributions directly to their NSSF accounts through the Bank, within 24 hours, Mobile money payment platform, NSSF Payway and SMS alerts.

This is a Press Release From NSSF Uganda