Google’s 4year reign of being world’s top 100 brands was brought to an end by Apple with a staggering 84 percent increase in value over the past year as the world’s most valuable brand.  This showed in the study carried out by global brands agency Millward Brown.

The Apple brand, as calculated by Millward Brown Optimor, a WPP company, has increased in value by 859 percent since 2006 and now stands at $153.3 billion. Other key findings in the study are that during the economic recovery of the last year, the combined value of all the brands in the top 100 has risen by 17 percent and is now worth $2.4 trillion.

Apple's portfolio of coveted consumer goods propelled it past Microsoft to become the world's most valuable technology company in 2010.

Other top ICT brands are; Google at number two, IBM at number three, Microsoft at number five, AT&T at number seven and China Mobile at number nine.
McDonald's rose two places to number four, as fast food became the fastest-growing category, Coca-Cola slipped one place to number six, Marlboro was also down one to number eight, and General Electric was number 10.

Facebook entered the top 100 at number 35 with a brand valued at $19.1bn, while Chinese search engine Baidu rose to number 29 from 46.

More in WPP

The government is to set up call centres across the country to employ over 3,000 youth.The call centre initiative is part of the Job Stimulus Programme that the Government designed to create jobs for the youth, mainly through the use of the growing computing and information technology (ICT) sector.

Under the initiative, Ugandans will be in position to work for local and multi-national firms and organisations online, ICT minister Aggrey Awori said yesterday.

The first two call centres will be established in Kampala, with one at Makerere University. Both will be operational by July. The Makerere centre will employ over 300 youth while the second one, whose location is yet to be decided, will create over 1,000 direct jobs, Awori said.
Other call centres will be established on a regional basis in the districts of Soroti or Mbale, Gulu or Lira, Mbarara, Masaka and Fort Portal.

Awori explained that the centres will operate 24 hours a day.

Most of the youth expected to get direct employment are graduates of information and communications technology (ICT).

The centres will be connected to the national backbone for fast internet.

However, he said since the call centres will serve as bases for sourcing both local and international jobs on the internet under the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) programme, more skilled youth will get jobs.

The jobs are expected to grow from 3,000 to over 7,000 by the end of next year.

BPO is when an organisation uses outside service providers to perform activities traditionally handled by internal staff.

Awori said with the programme, Ugandans may no longer have to go abroad to look for kyeyo (odd jobs) since they can do international jobs even from within the country.

“The Government is committed to supporting the ICT sector and BPO industry in general so as to create employment and enhance people’s incomes especially the youth,” he added.

Awori was speaking at a function where the ministry passed out 485 pioneer students of the BPO course at Makerere University school of computing. He said more youth, including those in villages, would be trained.

The underlying premise, the minister added, is to promote self-employment as a viable alternative to the traditional and endemic path of academic qualification.

During a state dinner where he hosted entrepreneurs and dozens of youth in October, President Yoweri Museveni, hailed the call centre initiative, saying the programme would reduce unemployment and spur economic development.

He said the youth would appreciate Uganda more if they engaged in income-generating activities.

The programme is coordinated by the Uganda Youth Convention, Institute of Country Pride, Enterprise Uganda and the Uganda Industrial Research Institute, which provides vocational and industrial training services. It is also funded by the Job Stimulus Programme in the finance ministry and the private sector.

The World Bank in its 2008 report said Uganda had the highest youth unemployment rate and the youngest population in the world. It warned that unless Uganda scales up her efforts to create jobs, the youth would be more involved in crime and armed conflicts.

Another report by the African Development Indicators 2008/2009, which focused on youth and unemployment in Africa, showed that 83% of Ugandan youth are jobless.

Yesterday, Betty Bigombe, the National Information Technology Authority chairperson, said the programme had grown to phenomenal market levels estimated to be over $1.1trillion per annum.

She added that if embraced, the programme would spur economic development in Uganda like it had in India, Philippines and Mauritius.
From: New Vision

MTN Uganda has today officially released Uganda’s second and third official Android Technology offerings with the Samsung Galaxy Tablet and the Samsung Galaxy Mini. Today’s launch comes only two months after MTN signed up the first Android-powered mobile phone in Uganda.

Android is a mobile operating system owned by Google, and was lauded in 2010 as the world’s best-selling smartphone platform. The Android Platform currently comes with more than 200,000 applications and a fast-growing host of application developers worldwide.

The Samsung Galaxy Tablet is a globally popular tablet that offers the benefits of both a regular mobile phone and a tablet computer.

“The Galaxy Tab will be perfect for busy professionals who find it necessary to work on the move, and to all those who consider fast communication tools an essential part of their daily lives. We are introducing the Galaxy Tab both as a solution for busy people and as a tool of business for those with high targets,” MTN Uganda Chief Executive Officer Themba Khumalo said today.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab has a 7-inch touchscreen, making it very portable, and supports Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. It also provides two in-built cameras for video phone calls and ordinary phone functionalities. More than two million units of the Samsung Galaxy Tab have been shipped worldwide since the end of 2010, and MTN stores in Uganda today join the list of destinations for the Galaxy Tab.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab will be available at MTN Service Centres at Ushs1,310,000 inclusive of a 1GB mobile internet bundle.

“We find it important to provide products and services in Uganda that are being accepted globally so that Uganda can be a competitive place to do business. With time, a Ugandan businessman using a Galaxy Tab in Kampala will enjoy the very same advantages as a European businessman using a Galaxy Tab in Paris or a Japanese businessman in Tokyo,” Khumalo added.

The Samsung Mini mobile phone, which is also being released alongside the Tablet, is the perfect choice for those who might want to enjoy the benefits of the Android technology at a lower rate. The touch screen phone combines necessary provisions such as Quick Office and integrated email for all the major email accounts, with brilliant functions such as “SWIPE” texting, You Tube client, and Google maps.

It comes with 160MB internal memory, allowing for expansion of up to 32GB external storage, which makes it appropriate for business people.

The Mini comes with 300MB data from MTN, at Ushs 465,000.

Among services available from the Android Market using the Samsung Galaxy Tab are online bookstores with leading titles, business productivity applications and tools as well as numerous infotainment products.

“We are proud to be leading in this field, and we know that with gadgets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab & Galaxy Mini, we are increasing the capability of Ugandans to harness the power of reliable, high speed internet services off MTNs 3G+ network,” Khumalo added.


The Android platform is highly popular with the ICT community because it enables software developers to create applications that extend the functionality of mobile phones. There are currently over 200,000 apps available for Android phones, which can be downloaded from Google.

“For almost fifteen years, MTN has been at the forefront of making communication more affordable and accessible, you will remember other introductions onto the market such as Prepaid services; Charging in Uganda shillings; MTN Zone; and more. The Galaxy Tab is going to propel Uganda’s business community to greater heights, while also giving trendy, progressive youth a great way to communicate with each other,” Khumalo added.

Sarona Asset Management announced its Sarona Frontier Markets Fund has committed  US$1,500,000 in the Africa Telecommunications, Media and Technology Fund (ATMT). In addition, the Sarona Risk Capital Fund has invested US$300,000 in Mobile Transactions Zambia (MTZ).

Sarona is supporting companies that are leading the booming information and communication technology sector in East Africa. ATMT companies offer their customers the first East African triple play service solution (telephone, cable and broadband Internet) while MTZ links its clients through its electronic voucher, payment system and money transfer technologies. With better service, quality and pricing, these companies are already operational in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, and have expansion plans to Rwanda and Uganda in the works.
"We believe that our investments in these information and communication technology (ICT) companies will allow millions of East Africans the opportunity to affordably connect to the Internet, receive quality communications and programming, and improve the speed at which they make financial transactions," said Gerhard Pries, President of Sarona. "These investments are part of our continuing effort to develop innovative initiatives in the field of impact investing. Building accessible and affordable information and communication pathways is critical to a society's economic development."

Sarona Asset Management is based in Waterloo, ON, and is a co-founder and/or manager of a number of impact investment funds, including the Sarona and MicroVest groups of funds. Together, these funds have over $180 million in assets under management in emerging and developing country markets around the world.

American ICT firm Digital Divide Data (DDD) to set up a business process outsourcing operation in Kenya.

DDD will invest Sh72 million (£900 000) in a 300-seater outsourcing centre that will handle call centre, data entry, electronic publishing and back-office operations.

The Rockefeller Foundation will fund the initial investment while Cisco and Microsoft will offer technology support.

Amolo Ng’weno managing director DDD in Kenya said between 70 and 80 per cent of the jobs that the firm will handle will be outsourced locally while the rest will come from the international market.
Service offerings

"Kenya is a dynamic market, leading companies are finally modernising their businesses... this is the right time for DDD to bring strong BPO service offerings to clients in East Africa," said

Ng’weno has experience in the country’s ICT industry having co-founded Africa Online in the 1990s. She later worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as deputy director for Financial Services for the Poor programme.

The move is seen as a growth in confidence among investors in the BPO business in Kenya. The industry has had a slow start and unable to secure major contracts despite having high-speed connectivity via the under sea fibre optic cables.

Slow satellite connection was in the past seen as the major hurdle for the sector. Other challenges – like capacity among outsourcing firms to handle certain calibre of jobs - have however cropped up.

DDD has operated in South East Asia for ten years and draws parallels with Kenya’s BPO industry and it challenges to that of countries like the sub continent in the late 1990s.

"When we went to Cambodia 10 years ago, many thought it could not be done but today, the country has a vibrant BPO industry," said Jeremy Hockenstein DDD global chief executive.

"We believe that there is huge potential and expect the sector to grow... in another five years or a bit more BPO will be a key sector for the economy."

DDD will recruit high school graduates aged between 18 and 24 and train them on BPO and call centre operations.

From The Standard