On April 23rd 2026, MTN Uganda, through the MTN Foundation, will formally hand over the Kabale MTN Spark Hub to Kabale University. Built and delivered by Centenary Technology Services (Cente-Tech), in partnership with the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, it is the first of four regional hubs under Phase 2 of the MTN ACE Tech Programme, a three-year initiative that aims to equip 8,000 youths and create startups, taking the programme beyond Kampala to national universities across Uganda.
Since 2022, the MTN ACE Tech Programme has invested in the National ICT Innovation Hub in Nakawa, building a pathway for digital skilling, incubation, and acceleration. The results from MTN ACE Phase 1 have been hard to argue with. More than 32,000 people trained. 90% of advanced trainees are in work or running their own businesses within six (6) months of graduating. The model works. Now MTN Uganda is taking it beyond Kampala.
Ask any young person in Kabale what stands between them and a meaningful career in the digital economy, and the answer is rarely ability. It is access.
Access to a reliable computer. Access to high-speed internet. Access to a creative space where ideas can be tested and built —not just imagined. For young Ugandans outside Kampala, the absence of that infrastructure has not been a minor inconvenience. It has been a wall.
The Kabale MTN Spark Hub removes that wall. It is open not just to Kabale University students but to the surrounding community. A young person in Kabale now has the same starting point as a young person in Nakawa. That is the point.
MTN ACE Tech Phase 2 does not start from zero. Phase 1 of the MTN ACE Tech Programme, run at the National ICT Innovation Hub in Nakawa since December 2022, demonstrated, at scale, that when young Ugandans are given the right environment and the right tools, they do not need charity. They need a chance.
Phase 2 builds directly on that foundation, taking the same model, the same standards, and the same ambition into the regions. What arrives in Kabale on Wednesday is not an experiment. It is a proven model, moved.
Kabale is the opening move. Busitema University in eastern Uganda follows in May 2026. Gulu and Soroti are next. When the network is complete, the MTN ACE Tech Programme’s reach will extend to significant corners of Uganda, ensuring that digital exclusion is no longer determined by geography.
The handover ceremony takes place at Kabale University on April 23rd. Senior representatives from the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, the MTN Uganda Foundation, Centenary Technology Services, and Kabale University will gather alongside students and communities from across the region to mark the occasion.
