East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA- Airtel Uganda has said that it's still in consultation with government as far as Mobile Number Registration (MNR) is concerned.
The Ugandan government through the sector regulatory body the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) last week announced that the registration of all mobile phone users will commence by the start of August, as a measure of deterring phone related crimes.
The body added that the exercise will last for six months and is expected to capture users' numbers as well as other information like their biological data.    
"We shall definitely comply but we need to understand the process and procedures," said Mr. Levy Nyakundi the Airtel Uganda Marketing director.
Nyakundi was last week unveiling a Ush500m (about $200,000) promotion dubbed "Kyaba Too Much-Cash 'n' Cars in Kampala, which the telecom operator launched as a give back to their customers. He also announced that their customer base has hit 3.3 million subscribers, a positive trend towards the company's growth. Uganda's largest operator MTN Uganda has about 7 million subscribers, of the reported 14 million active mobile phone users in Uganda. Warid telecom and Airtel closely fight for the second and third slot respectively.
"For only Ush 500 (about $0.2), airtel customers will be required to send the word "WIN" by SMS to a designated short code 162, and answer the questions that follow. The customers who will answer all questions by text messaging will be notified immediately by SMS if the answer is correct or wrong and automatically be entered," explained Nyakundi.
The Kyaba Promotion will see Airtel lucky customers win a Toyota Ipsum every week, as well as bagging one million Uganda Shillings daily for 12 weeks.