As Orange Uganda presented five mobile applications developed by students at last year’s Community Innovations Awards, the company reiterated its commitment to supporting local innovations as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.
Five teams of developers were selected as winners of a competition that attracted 72 students from Ugandan universities. The five were part of 20 finalists that were recognized by Uganda’s State Minister for ICT, Mr. Nyombi Thembo, and Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi at the Awards ceremony held at Makerere University last August.
“As Orange, our objective is to help these students build sustainable businesses. That’s why we’ve given them one year internship and mentorship while letting them register private companies. These apps are owned by them,” said Harriette Kasirye, Head of CSR & Corporate Philanthropy at Orange Uganda.
Facing the media for the first time since his appointment, new CEO Vincent Poujol reiterated Orange’s commitment to helping students “enhance their employability”.
“Orange supports the implementation of the best projects in an effort to bridge the gap between the eduction and the industry sectors,” said the CEO.
“The apps developed by students from both public and private universities provide practical solutions to pressing social issues; enabling phone users to utilize mobile devices as lifestyle tools – beyond basic calls and texts.
“Focus on the education, agriculture and health sectors entrenches the pillars of Orange corporate social responsibility programs,” he added.
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The students have completed 12 months of internship at Orange where they have gained skills to enhance their employability in a very competitive industry.
In a separate interview, Poujol spoke with optimism about the company’s future, especially being in a very competitive market.
“If you look at reports from UCC, Orange is leading, by far, in terms of quality. We have the network infrastructure and capacity that’s equal to or more superior than any other player in the market, so what we need to do now is to sign up the customers to utilize it,” he noted before adding, “I think we’re not where we should be [in terms of market share]”.
In May 2014, Vincent Poujol succeeded Philippe Luxcey as Orange’s CEO, having been the Country Manager for Orange Group-owned Mobinil, one of Egypt’s three mobile phone operators. He has worked with Orange for more than 15 years in several countries including Iraq and France.
The Apps
The following apps were launched today:
Luunda Lite (Won UGX. 2,300,000 and internship)
Luunda is a mobile app that is currently running on Android mobile devices, developed to assist poultry farmers, and provides the following features:
- Provides reliable information to the farmers in form of tips and advice on how to handle different types of hens
- Diagnosis of various infections
- Enable farmers to share information amongst themselves
- Enables farmers to view stores
Developers: William Luyinda, Artn Katamba and Ibrahim Ssekabembe
Mens Preg (Won UGX. 5,000,000 and internship)
Mens Preg lets ladies use preventive measures to prepare for and track monthly periods. It helps mitigate medication, radioactive rays and trauma.
MensPreg, according to the developers, uses a calendar to display information and predicts future events. Accurately entry of information period flow, intimacy, frequency and pregnancy status helps in the prediction of ovulation day, safe days and possible conception/delivery days.
Developers: Dut Athian and Joyce Nambalirwa
Agro Market Day (Won UGX. 10,000,000 and internship)
Agro Market Day is a mobile app that exposes agricultural markets, market days, farmers, their details and the products sold in different markets in different districts on Uganda, thereby closing the gap between those districts that have wide availability of products and those with limited availability.
Developers: Lisa Katusiime and Isaac Omiat
Noisy Gates
Noisy Gates enables the public to quantify the levels of noise they’re exposed to and automatically be notified about the possible effects of the measured noise level and precautions that can be taken. NoisyGates also helps share the measured noise levels with concerned authorities for possible action.
FirstAid
This application puts medical knowledge for every day emergencies in a device. The app provides the user with quick access to the information one needs to know in order to handle the most common first aid emergencies.
All the five apps can be found on Android’s Google Play store.
Later this month, the finals for this year’s edition of the Orange Community Innovations Awards will be held at Serana Hotel.
