Nompilo Morafo, MTN Group chief sustainability and corporate affairs officer.

MTN has opened a skills school in Uganda to address the digital skills gap, particularly among rural and marginalised youth.

The MTN Skills Academy seeks to provide youngsters across the African continent with access to digital and financial skills training as a catalyst for job development and expanded employment prospects.

MTN said yesterday that it is well positioned to serve communities thanks to its collaboration with ATC Uganda, which has Digital Communities situated at the base of its towers, and Huawei, which has a mobile Digitruck giving connection.

ATC's Digital Communities are digitally connected spaces that are equipped with ICT and offer instructor-led or self-guided digital literacy and youth education instruction, financial literacy and career skilling, or healthcare services with the goal of improving quality of life through connectivity.

In addition, MTN Uganda debuted its digital bus, which provides mobile connectivity to enable community members to access the MTN Skills Academy from numerous locations across the country.

Joyce Nabbosa Ssebugwawo, Minister of State for Information, Communications and Technology, said: “This project will enable our youth to tap into the vast resources that MTN offers for our nation's development.”

Nompilo Morafo, MTN Group chief sustainability and corporate affairs officer, said: “We believe that this platform will be pivotal in providing Ugandan youth with the essential skills required to flourish in the digital economy.

“Not only will this help alleviate the shortage of digital skills, but it will also reverberate positively across the nation's economic growth trajectory, aligning to the newly launched Digital Transformation Roadmap.”

Trade summit

Meanwhile, the Uganda-South Africa investment and trade summit, attended by MTN Group and other significant South African companies that have operations in Uganda, concluded this week.

The summit's goal is to boost investment and trade between Uganda and South Africa. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni presided over the event.

Speaking at the summit, MTN Group chair Mcebisi Jonas, said: “As a Pan-African organisation MTN sees its role as an important part of the broader conversation to support and facilitate growth and development across the continent and that is why the group has played its part in engaging with the public and private sector to make the summit a reality.”

In his closing remarks, President Museveni encouraged companies to continue investing in Uganda.

Uganda is one of MTN's core markets, and mobile subscribers increased by 11.2% to 18.1 million in the current reporting period, while active data subscribers increased by 21.4% to 6.9 million and active fintech subscribers increased by 11.6% to 10.9 million.