MTN boosts NiE with Shs200m

Kampala.

The MTN foundation has handed over Shs216 million to the Monitor Publications Ltd (MPL) to supply 100 schools with newspapers to promote literacy and a reading culture in impoverished rural schools across the country.

While handing over the dummy cheque on Monday morning, Mr Wim Vanhelleputte, the MTN chief executive officer, said as a communication company, promoting education and literacy is among MTN’s core values.

Mr Vanhelleputte said 70 per cent of the company social corporate responsibility expenditure goes to education projects in Uganda.

“As a communications company, one of our core values is promoting education and literacy and that is why 70 per cent of our CSR expenditure goes to education.

This is money from the MTN foundation- from profits we have generated in Uganda,” he said.

While receiving the cheque, Mr Tony Glencross, the MPL managing director, said all over the world, newspapers are used to promote reading and literacy because access to reading materials is a problem that is why they use newspapers to encourage teachers to teach pupils how to read and to improve how teachers teach the learners.

“Teachers use the paper to teach children summary, to take assignments, to read and fill puzzles, get children involved in reading and this brings brand affiliation which is a positive association we want them to be readers of our newspapers,” he said adding that it is a costly exercise which requires partners to work with.

Ms Sarah Nalule, the MPL head of marketing, said 25 schools from four regions of the country, have been earmarked to benefit from the programme and five of them are for children with disabilities who will be provided with special needs reading equipment such as braille.

“Last year, we launched a campaign dubbed ‘help them learn how to read’ and lot of corporate companies have come out to help. As a business, we believe in education and we believe in raising a literate generation, including the underprivileged students in primary schools and every school will be getting 50 copies per week,” she said.

Newspapers in Education, is a newspaper magazine published by the MPL providing content for primary school-going children.

Most of the content focuses on current affairs, games and articles, which stimulate thinking among the learners together with activities that engage their creativity.