Close

 

MTN Uganda’s Youth platform, MTN Pulse has today entered a partnership with FUZU the leading online Job and career portal in East Africa. This follows MTN Pulse’s vision of empowering the youth to realize their full potential as the vanguards of the future.

In this partnership, MTN Pulse will work with FUZU to support the MTN Pulsers with career guidance, job searching insights and the relevant training as a way of supporting them to identify and nurture successful careers.

Under this partnership, MTN Pulsers will get access to a customized fuzu platform with 400 FUZU points which will enable them to get discounts on the array of premium services offered by FUZU including personalized career coaching sessions with FUZU’s professional career coaches who give a holistic support on preparing for the right career opportunities and a professionally curated online curriculum vitae (CV) that improves the candidate’s chances of securing the job interview.

The MTN Pulsers who apply for jobs through FUZU can also redeem their Fuzu points for Instant Feedback on job applications to see how their profile   compares with the employers’ requirements and top candidates, giving them an opportunity for learning and development using the FUZU points. Furthermore, they will be able to access FUZU Learn which entails professional courses created by FUZU and its learning partners such as Udemy.

While launching the partnership, Hellen Kirungi, MTN Uganda’s Youth Segment Manager said that MTN Pulse had partnered with FUZU to further support the youths in their career journey through empowering them with the right skill sets for their careers to take-off. Youth empowerment is one of the pillars upon which MTN Pulse is hinged.

“MTN Pulse is an aspirational brand for our Ugandan youth. And just like them, the brand is about excitement, fun, attitude, and ambition. Our partnership with FUZU solidifies our commitment to support their ambitions and help them secure a meaningful future that is productive, secure and successful,” Kirungi said.

Alvin Katto, Fuzu’s Country Manager in Uganda said that the partnership with MTN Pulse signifies a huge step forward in achieving Fuzu’s mission of preparing people for Success in Uganda.

“Since our launch in Uganda in 2018, Fuzu has supported thousands of people to get access to career guidance, growth opportunities and support to be able to achieve their career goals and have meaningful careers. The partnership with MTN Pulse provides us with a platform to enable even more people, specifically the youth, to have access to these resources, which we firmly believe will have exponential positive effects on the growth of the country.”

Making job hunting and career growth easier for the youth with the MTN Pulse-FUZU partnership

MTN Pulsers will register for this through the Pulse App under careers and will be redirected to the registration. The link to FUZU https://www.fuzu.com/signup/mtn-pulse will be zero rated to allow pulsers access to the rich and insightful career-related content from FUZU and to enable them keep up with the career dynamics as they find their footing in the world of work. MTN is keen on empowering the youth to take control of their lives through extending to them specially tailored offers such as this offer from FUZU that the youth need in order to get ahead in life.

The partnership between MTN Pulse and FUZU is but one of the many deals that MTN has secured for its youth segment customers. In addition to offering them discounted MTN products and services, the youth on MTN Pulse automatically qualify for discounts and freebies with various MTN Pulse partners. Go to https://www.mtn.co.ug/pulse/offers to get the best deals from the leading glam, fashion and eating joints around town courtesy of MTN Pulse.

According to Kirungi, it is easy for youth to become MTN Pulsers; All they have to do is download the MTN Pulse App available on both google play and iOS app stores and take over the world. The MTN Pulse app is an interactive platform where everything about the Pulse Nation lives including the funkiest content and offers from MTN Uganda and its Pulse partners. You can also learn more about the Pulse Nation on the MTN Pulse microsite.

The uncertainty of the future of the education sector has left many children camped at home, but for twenty-year-old Brian Mawerere, music is his go to.

The MTN Foundation Youth Skilling program is his stepping stone.

Mawerere alias Welleh Beats is one of the participants in the MTN Foundation Youth Skilling program, a partnership between MTN Foundation and Ubunifu systems created with the aim of empowering youth into becoming job creators.

With the ultimate dream of becoming an entrepreneur in music production, Welleh jumped at the opportunity to attain business skills from the MTN Foundation Youth Skilling program in December 2020.

He knew that to attain the dream of becoming one of the most successful music producers in the region, he needed to have the right business skillset to run and manage a company.

“Through the MTN Foundation Youth Skilling Program, I learnt how to manage business and now have some knowledge especially on digital skills. I can now keep tabs on my company records through Microsoft excel, make beautiful presentations using MS Power point and the overall knowledge of using computers will help me navigate the software in my music production journey,” he says.

Welleh’s music production journey is budding with about a year’s experience in his pocket.

He embarked on the tunes and hymns expedition after schools were closed as a result of the pandemic in March 2020.

Welleh is a senior six vacist from Bright Secondary School Entebbe having accomplished his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) in 2019, right before the pandemic hit.

Slotted for university in 2020, unaware of the pandemic that the future held, Welleh was vested in cultivating a passion he had for music. He was inspired by the late Danz Kumapeesa.

“After finishing my S6, I got a job from which I was earning some money. I bought a small laptop and installed basic software for music production,” he narrates.

For months, Welleh trained on his laptop and a nearby studio in Seguku where he was working with his father. In November 2020, Welleh hit a milestone when he got an opportunity to work as producer at his uncle’s friend’s studio.

“With help from my uncle, I got a link to his friend who needed a producer.  Following a successful audition, I was hired at that studio in Kajjansi where I had to relocate,” he says.

However, the job didn’t last very long because the proprietor of the studio pulled out of the business, forcing Welleh to relocate back to his family home in Bulenga.

Determined to become a music producer, Welleh discovered Pinnacle records in Bulenga, a studio where he now undertakes continuous and relentless training.

“I officially joined the music industry while at Pinnacle records. There, I continued training myself both in the studio and researching via the internet on how to better my music production skills,” Welleh recounts.

 

Achievements

Already, in his budding music production journey, Welleh has worked with some artists, mostly a cocktail of the upcoming.

“I have worked with some that might be known and others that aren’t so famous. I have worked with Zil Zil but one of my greatest achievements is making people happy through the work I do,” he explains.

Challenges

Welleh’s journey of music production has been an adventure not without its challenges.

As he reveals, the high costs involved in investing in studio time and time required for research limit his ability to fully harness his potential in music production.

“I would like to go to a real school for example in sound engineering such that I can fully become like one of those renowned and advanced music producers but that is expensive,” he notes.

Youth Skilling Program boosts networking for Welleh

Already, MTN Foundation Youth Skilling Program has set some milestones for the youngster through network connections to one of the prominent music producers.

During his training, Welleh had the opportunity to meet Benon Mugumbya, popularly known as Benon, a musician and renowned music producer from Swangz Avenue.

Well-grounded on digital and business skills attained through the Program, Welleh believes that he will be well prepared to seek for an opportunity at Swangz Avenue sooner than later.

At Swangz, he hopes to build onto his music experience before he can venture into his own production.

He wishes to work with various talented artists such as Sheebah Karungi, Spice Diana and Naava Grey among others in future.

Speaking further to his future, Welleh hopes to become an accomplished entrepreneur in the music industry flanked by an honors of the best music producer across East Africa.

The pandemic has ceased to be news and is now part of our lives. However, what still catches the ears of the public is the impact the pandemic is creating in our society. For businesses especially, some have suffered the wrath of the ever-changing economic landscape occasioned by the virus. The tough punch dealt to potential customers’ incomes through job loss doesn’t help the situation. However, a firm and determined business should house the agility to adapt to the situation.

One of the ways to remain afloat and beat the virus is to digitize.

Since the onset of covid-19, we have seen a paradigm shift towards digitisation of business operations across the 21 sectors. We are witnessing an extreme reliance on ICT solutions as businesses seek for alternative ways to remain productive during and after the pandemic. A plethora of businesses have shifted operations to digital platforms. Host platforms have reported an increase in merchants and evidently the rationale is to boost sales even during the lockdown. This is also evidenced by the increase in demand for stable internet connection especially working at home as well as mobile money payments for businesses both in Kampala and outside Kampala.

Effective and frequent communication

However digitization ought to be coupled with effective communication if your business is to succeed. At MTN, we offer customized three in 1 packages including voice, SMS and internet to enable you effectively run your online business.

Expose your business widely

One of the concerns with the pandemic is the reduced disposable income amongst the public. But the beauty with digitization is the endless pool of markets.

Digitization opens your business up to markets in Uganda, across regions and globally. This is important because whereas one market could be affected, another market presents an opportunity for your business.

Endeavor to scale your business operations online. Do not limit your business only to in-country operations, have a presence and representation through website, phone contacts among others on not only national but also international level.

Look for value pockets

As a small business, it is also important to carry out a post-mortem during this period to understand your value pockets. It is important to understand who is currently driving your revenue. Your current client base might be different from over 6 months or even two years ago.

Once you have figured that out, create a strategy on engaging those currently driving your revenue and the future prospects of the client base and ensure discipline to follow through with the strategy to the letter.

Focus on that strategy and ensure you have the technical capability to effectively execute it.

One of the tenets of the strategy should be to examine the way a business can redefine its products and services to suit the demand or situation caused by the pandemic. In MTN’s case, prior to the pandemic, investment of large scale internet majorly targeted large corporations in central business districts but that has since changed to cater to residential areas and smaller businesses as working from home persists.

Standing out on digital

And as more businesses digitize, your business needs to set itself apart.

The first step is to ensure your business is digitized with great connectivity.

MTN has fibre from border to border across over 50 major districts in Uganda and we have channel partners to support the digitization process.

MTN also has fibre close to over 300 estates in the central business districts available to support work from home.

As a business, you also ought to have a number of payment options to enable customers to pay from anywhere at their convenience.

Through mobile money, one of the commonest means of money transfer in Uganda, MTN enables businesses to ease the payment process through MoMo for Business solutions which can be accessed at talk business on the MTN website.