MTN Uganda has invested Ugx 182 million ($70,000) in the partnership with a human capital development organisation, Inspire Africa, and Bank of Africa to produce a business competition TV show that supports young entrepreneurs.

The show called “Sawa Ya Cash”, meaning “Cash Hour”, selects the top 15 business ideas from a pool of over 30,000 locally trained entrepreneurs and rewards the winners with a start-up capital of Ugx 5 million ($1,900) after a competition, which lasts 15 weeks.

The CEO of Inspire Africa Mr. Nelson Tugume, in explaining the vision of the show said, “Sawa Ya cash is part of a larger vision of Inspire Africa to stimulate entrepreneurship amongst the youth not only in Uganda but across Africa.”

Sawa Ya Cash is organised by Inspire Africa, with its major sponsor MTN, expressing its pride at being able to continually support human capital development initiatives, especially SME’s across the landlocked East African nation.

“MTN is proud to use its position as the number one corporate citizen to support government initiatives in various areas; including SMEs which play a very critical role in the development of the national economy”. MTN Uganda’s CEO, Mr. Mazen Mroué, said while speaking during the grand finale event at Hotel Africana.

“MTN’s partnership with Inspire Africa and Bank of Africa is another demonstration of our commitment to empowering our customers’ in order to make their lives a whole lot better,” he said.

An official statement released by the telecom company reveals enormous and consistent investment in SME development. In the last two years alone, MTN Uganda has invested over Ugx 1 billion ($380,000) in business support to the sector “through financing business management skills training initiatives including the Annual SME Business Management training in partnership with KPMG.”

In the last 15 years of operation in Uganda, MTN’s total investment made has exceeded Ugx. 1.5 Trillion ($578 million).

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