The Only Legitimate Team That Will Give Your Brand/Service/Product/Event Deserved Social Media Presence
As social media practitioners, we do understand that social media is a powerful tool for marketing, branding, and customer engagement, but it also requires a significant investment of time, money, and resources. How do you justify your social media budget to your boss, your clients, or yourself? How do you measure and communicate the return […]
JUSTIFYING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BUDGET
The Buliisa Farmers Capacity Building Project, initiated by Pure Grow Africa Limited with significant support from McDermott, celebrates the graduation of 1500 farmers today.
These farmers underwent transformational training that encompassed areas such as land and seedling preparation, crop production and care, post-harvest processes, value addition, financial literacy, and enterprise development.
Highlighting the project’s emphasis on inclusivity, a majority of the beneficiaries were women and youth. Despite challenges like limited access to irrigation water and equipment, primarily due to Buliisa’s harsh climatic conditions, the program has pioneered a shift in agricultural practices.
Moving away from traditional cassava and maize production, farmers have embraced a diverse range of horticultural alternatives. This transition is not only market-relevant but also instigates an inclusive agricultural evolution, opening a world of possibilities for the community.
This endeavour underscores the vital link between agriculture and the oil and gas sector. Infrastructure advancements led by the oil and gas industry have inadvertently boosted agricultural supply chains. Meanwhile, the energy sector benefits from a proximate and sustainable source of fresh produce, optimizing operational costs and minimizing environmental impacts.
Pure Grow Africa Ltd, an integral player in the East African agribusiness sector, has made waves by sourcing a myriad of produce from an expansive network of farmers. Their commitment to strengthening farming communities through capacity-building programs and value chain enhancement is commendable.
This integrated approach not only positions Pure Grow Africa Ltd at the forefront of agricultural practices and food safety but also bridges the gap between local farming initiatives and vast market opportunities.
McDermott, a global frontrunner in engineering and construction for the energy sector, showcases its dedication to community growth in Uganda.
Associated as a tier-one contractor for the Tilenga Project by Total Energies, McDermott’s support for the Buliisa Farmers Capacity Building Project reinforces their commitment to sustainable and inclusive growth.
This initiative strengthens the agricultural foundation of the region and mirrors McDermott’s mission of nurturing prosperous collaborations with local communities.
Following a first summit in Kigali, Rwanda in March 2023, the Senegalese capital, Dakar, will host on August 29, at the Radisson Blu hotel in Dakar, a follow-up summit on health technologies and innovation in the field of public health in Africa. This will be a high-level meeting bringing together government officials from several African countries, startups and investors.
The Dakar Health Tech Hub Summit organized under the theme: Fast-tracking innovations in the field of public health in Africa, the Dakar summit, co-organised by the Ministry of Health and Social Action of Senegal, the Novartis Foundation, and the HealthTech Hub Africa, a health technology accelerator headquartered in Kigali, aims to help governments and start-ups collaborate on data- and technology-driven innovations that strengthen African health systems.
This meeting builds on the dialogue established in March this year in Kigali, Rwanda, with the launch of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG), aimed at facilitating multilateral discussions between public health administrators and innovators on policy solutions to accelerate technological innovations in public health systems in African countries.
Africa faces significant health challenges. While the continent bears 22% of the global burden of disease, it has only 3% of the world’s health workforce and less than 1% of global financial resources. Furthermore, Africa is projected to have around 374 million young people of working age by 2030, yet they currently make up 60% of the continent’s unemployed population. Technology has proven to be the most powerful tool for closing these gaps in health and employment.
The Dakar summit, Health Tech Africa, will bring together regulators, policy makers and innovators to review and validate findings arising from experiences in the implementation of technological solutions in the public health systems of African countries, showcase the results of digital health and e-health solutions implemented by the MSAS in Senegal and other African countries and startups, and discuss the sustainability and adoption of effective technological solutions for public health in Africa.
Turaco, Africa’s leading insurtech company, breaks barriers to become the first insurtech in Uganda to acquire an underwriting license.
Turaco Microinsurance Company (“Turaco Microinsurance”) aims to be the leading
provider of affordable and simple microinsurance products, reaching unserved and underserved Ugandans in line with its global mission of insuring 1 billion people.
This in turn will design and distribute simple products that target the key risks mass-market customers face, with policies starting at just 1,000 Ugandan shillings per month.
Through its customer-centric approach, Turaco Microinsurance will offer terms
and conditions that are simple enough to fit 3 SMS messages, such that even first-time
insurance customers are able to understand their policy and what is covered.
As an underwriter, Turaco Microinsurance will make it easy to sign up by integrating with distribution partners’ systems via API (Application Programming Interface).
Customers will be able to access insurance
through a simple touch of a button. Furthermore, Turaco Microinsurance will process and facilitate the payment of claims in just hours, building customer trust in insurance and the insurance industry.
Speaking during the official launch, Hamza Mutebi, Turaco Microinsurance Company
General Manager and Principal Officer, said, “Today is a big day for Turaco.
From our humble beginnings as an agency to now an underwriting entity, we are proud of
acquiring our license. It is a major milestone.
This is huge for us because it now allows us
to both design and distribute affordable products that are simple and accessible,
expand our reach to even more underserved people and leverage our technology to
quickly pay claims using simple channels such as WhatsApp.”
Being an official launch, we were graced by the presence of Hon. Evelyn Anite State Minister for Investment & Privatization in the cabinet of Uganda. She thanked Turaco for being zealous and promised her support towards their dream.
Calling for the prioritisation of innovation in microinsurance, Bernard Obel, Insurance
Regulatory Authority (IRA) Director Supervision, said, “Microinsurance aims to benefit a population group that often lacks knowledge about insurance.
As regulators, we must facilitate insurers in developing simple products that the poor can easily understand.
Turaco has been a key facilitator in increasing insurance access to the mass market through distribution.
As regulators, we will work with them and the insurance industry as a whole, to develop products, define governance, and establish service standards.
Health emergencies can be devastating for base-of-the-pyramid households in Africa,
as low financial resiliency often leaves them vulnerable to unplanned health costs.
Without appropriate methods to cope with financial shocks, an alarming 14 million
low-income households are pushed into poverty every year due to out of pocket health
expenditure.
In Uganda over 15% of the population experiences a catastrophic, health
related expense each year. Insurance, a key tool for mitigating risk and increasing
resiliency, is not widespread, with only 2% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa
currently insured. In Uganda, less than 1% of the population is insured.
Leveraging the success of Turaco’s embedded, technology-enabled insurance
distribution approach, Turaco Microinsurance looks to increase insurance coverage in Uganda.
The company plans to bring the strength of Turaco’s technology: simple
policy sign-up and fast claims processing via WhatsApp and combine it with the ability,
as an underwriter, to design innovative and affordable products.
As social media practitioners, we do understand that social media is a powerful tool for marketing, branding, and customer engagement, but it also requires a significant investment of time, money, and resources.
How do you justify your social media budget to your boss, your clients, or yourself?
How do you measure and communicate the return on investment (ROI) of your social media efforts?
In this article, we will explore some of the key steps and best practices to answer these questions and demonstrate the value of social media for your business.
First and foremost, you need to identify your goals;
The first step to justify your social media budget is to define your goals and align them with your overall business objectives. What are you trying to achieve with social media? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive sales, improve customer service, or build community?
How do these goals support your vision, mission, and values? By setting clear and specific goals, you can establish a direction and a purpose for your social media strategy and budget.
The next step is to choose the metrics that will help you track and measure your progress towards your goals.
Metrics are the indicators of your social media performance and impact. They can be divided into four categories: reach, engagement, conversion, and retention. Reach measures how many people see your content and how far it spreads.
Engagement measures how many people interact with your content and how deeply they connect with your brand.
Conversion measures how many people take a desired action, such as signing up, buying, or referring.
Retention measures how many people stay loyal, satisfied, and repeat customers. Depending on your goals, you may focus on different metrics and assign different weights to them.
The third step is to calculate your costs, or the amount of money and resources you spend on social media.
Costs can include direct expenses, such as software, tools, ads, and influencers, and indirect expenses, such as staff, time, and training.
You can use a simple formula to calculate your total social media cost: direct expenses + indirect expenses = total cost. You can also break down your costs by channel, campaign, or activity to get a more detailed picture of your spending.
The fourth step is to analyze your results, or the outcomes and benefits of your social media activities.
Results can include both quantitative and qualitative data, such as revenue, leads, referrals, testimonials, reviews, and feedback.
You can use a simple formula to calculate your social media ROI: (results – costs) / costs x 100 = ROI percentage.
You can also compare your results with your benchmarks, competitors, and industry standards to evaluate your performance and identify areas of improvement.
The final step is to communicate your value, or the story and impact of your social media efforts.
Value is not only about numbers, but also about emotions, relationships, and experiences.
You can use different methods and formats to communicate your value, such as reports, dashboards, presentations, stories, and case studies.
You can also use different channels and audiences to communicate your value, such as email, social media, blog, website, and meetings.
The key is to tailor your message and tone to your audience and highlight the benefits and solutions that matter to them.
Letshego Uganda has partnered with Africa’s leading insurtech Turaco Insurance Brokers Ltd T/A Turaco, to provide affordable health insurance coverage to Letshego customers. The partnership aims to help mitigate health-related financial risks in line with Letshego’s mission of empowering the underbanked and driving financial inclusion in Africa.
With a mere 1% of Ugandans currently covered by formal insurance plans, the partnership will help bridge that gap. Letshego customers will now be able to safeguard themselves and their families against unforeseen medical-related expenses. The insurance product named “LetsGo Insure” will be an embedded and enhancement for clients of Letshego’s Deduction at Source solution. With Turaco’s proprietary technology, qualifying Letshego customers will be automatically signed up for LetsGo Insure as part of their loan onboarding process.
LetsGo Insure has two benefits: Hospital Cash and Last Expense Cover (Funeral benefit). Hospital Cash acts as income replacement upon hospitalisation with a UGX 1,000,000 benefit, while the Life Cover (funeral) benefit provides financial relief of UGX 2,000,000 to the insured’s family in the unfortunate event of their passing, easing the burden of funeral expenses during a difficult time.
Giles Germany, CEO, Letshego Uganda, highlighted the significance of this partnership in empowering Letshego customers to protect themselves. He stated, “At Letshego, we are committed to providing our customers with holistic financial solutions that meet their evolving needs. Partnering with Turaco to offer LetsGo Insure is a significant step towards achieving our goal of “Improving Lives” in Uganda. We believe that this collaboration will not only offer our customers essential protection but also enable them to thrive and pursue their aspirations with greater confidence.”
“Most Ugandans today remain unreached by mainstream insurance, leaving them incredibly vulnerable to financial shocks caused by illness, accidents, and death. Strategic partnerships like this one remain critical in enabling Ugandans to access affordable and valuable insurance providing them a financial safety net and, ultimately, peace of mind. We extend our sincere appreciation to Letshego Uganda for embarking on this journey with us, driving mass-market insurance adoption in Uganda.” expressed Hamza Mutebi, General Manager, Turaco.
Letshego customers can now take advantage of this LetsGo Insure offering merely by continuing to borrow from Letshego. By joining forces, Turaco and Letshego Uganda are committed to ensuring that affordable and tailored insurance options are accessible to all, contributing to the overall financial resilience and protection of the people of Uganda.
The annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) hosted by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) will be held in Dar es Salam, Tanzania on September 27-29, 2023. This year will mark a decade of the largest gathering on internet freedom in Africa, which has since 2014 put internet freedom on the agenda of key actors including African policy makers, platform operators, telcos, regulators, human rights defenders, academia, law enforcement representatives, and the media. This has paved the way for broader work on advancing digital rights in Africa and promoting the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance.
In several African countries, it is becoming increasingly challenging to utilise the internet to defend human rights, strengthen independent media, support democratisation, and demand accountable and transparent governance, or to freely access information and contribute content in the diversity of African languages. This is undermining the core principle of the internet as a free and open platform.
The decision to host the 2023 edition of FIFAfrica in Tanzania is in recognition of the country’s progressive shift to advance digitalisation for sustainable development. Under the leadership of its first female President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, a proponent for civil rights and women’s rights, the country has undergone political and legal reforms aimed at enhancing civic space and digitalisation agenda. Notably, a data protection law has been enacted, the law governing media operations is being revised, and the Online Content Regulations 2020 were revised to make them more supportive of online speech, privacy and access to information.
It is upon this backdrop that FIFAfrica 2023 will offer a platform for critical engagement of diverse stakeholders in identifying the most pressing internet rights-related issues and challenges that have to be addressed at national and regional levels. Over the years, FIFAfrica has identified opportunities for bringing the debate on the importance of digital rights to national, regional and global fora. In particular, the Forum supports the development of substantive inputs to inform a wide range of conversations at organisational, national, regional, continental and global levels, including at the African Union, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the United Nations Human Rights Council, the African Internet Governance Forum (IGF), sub-regional IGFs and at the global IGF.
The growth in diversity of participants and discussions at FIFAfrica reflects the evolving trends and concerns in access and usage of the internet and related technologies. Topics have included access to information, mass surveillance, turning policy into action, internet shutdowns, content regulation, cyber security, digital economy, online violence against women, data protection and privacy, cyber governance, open source investigative journalism, online movement building and civic building, business and big data, building research capacity in internet measurements, innovation and security in conflict territories, as well as gender-sensitive approaches to ICT Policy and decision making.
Overall, FIFAfrica is helping to grow the community advancing digital rights in Africa, increasing awareness about and advocacy for internet freedom, while forging new alliances that advance digital rights. It elevates new voices including those of often marginalised groups such as the youth, persons with disabilities and women, and enables state and non-state actors to develop evidence-based interventions that guide policy and practice
FIFAfrica has previously been hosted in Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia and Zambia, with the last edition attended by up to 1,000 individuals (online and offline) from 47 countries.
Letshego Uganda has been nominated by the African Gaurantee Fund for the AFAWA Bank of the Year Award at the African Banker Awards set for Sharm-El-Sheikh Egypt on 24th May 2023
The African Banker Awards are a landmark annual event for African Banking that celebrates excellence and best practices in African banking recognising the personalities and banks that are driving Africa’s rapidly transforming financial sector.
They celebrate the achievements of those who are driving growth, development and creating new economic opportunities for citizens and communities all over the continent and inspire new generations of bankers who are shaping Africa’s future.
Women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion have been recognized as key to achieving the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development. This year’s Awards gala is poised to accentuate the theme of gender equity in the industry. In partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Guarantee Fund, a fresh accolade has been instituted to acknowledge and encourage initiatives aimed at propelling financial inclusivity for “Women across the African continent”.
The AfDB’s AFAWA (Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa) is a Pan-African initiative to bridge the $42billion financing gap facing women in Africa.
Letshego Uganda CEO Giles Aijukwe said, “At Letshego, we spotlight financial literacy because we have realized the power that financial education provides; basic skills related to earning, spending, budgeting, borrowing, saving and seizing growth opportunities.
Today, nearly a billion women around the world are unserved or underserved by the formal financial sector and unable to reach their full economic potential. If you brought all these women together, they would make up the third-largest country in the world.”
Given the might of financial institutions, be it, mainstream banks or MFIs (Microfinance Institutions) – they’re a powerful instrument for women empowerment.
Women’s ability to save, borrow and control their own money and assets- reduces poverty and promotes inclusive growth. Unequal gender roles have implications for the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity and freedom, which in turn influence financial inclusion – or lack thereof.
“Financial inclusion requires that low-income people have a convenient way to send money and make payments. We have prioritized this in Uganda with our Group Lending products (women as primary beneficiaries) alongside digital channels usage of USSD (*287#) and our Letshego Digital Mall (Omni-functional App or by following this link- http://www.letsgo.letshego.com) that eases access to financial services accessible through mobile phones. This is a commendable and timely nomination for Letshego Uganda,” Aijukwe emphasized.
The weekend of 10th to 12th February 2023 will be one to remember in Mbarara City, we can confirm.
On that weekend, the first national motor rally on the calendar dubbed ‘Mbarara City Rally’ will take place on 11th February at Booma Golf Course Grounds with entrance fee at 10k.
It is going to be bigger, better and fun filled as Uganda’s top drivers fly their speedy machines in the land of milk and honey.
The mega Mbarara City Festival will take place between 10th to 12th February in Mbarara City.
The Mbarara City Festival activities include Business Symposium, Rally, Music Arts, cycling, blood donation and soccer mini tournament.
Mbarara City Rally is sponsored by Mwesigwa Resort and organized by the Federation of Motor Sports Association of Uganda (FMU).
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