In what appears to be a show of muscle from telecom giants, Ugandans seem to be benefiting big from the COVID-19 donations. The lastest donations come in from Airtel Uganda which handed the response fund members a dummy cheque of UGX 1.25Bn from the red telecom.
The donation was handed over by Airtel Uganda MD, VG Somasekhar, and his team. The support will go towards the procurement of more test kits which is a critical area of need in this fight. The money will also be used by the ministry of health to support frontline health workers in the fight to end COVID-19 in Uganda, bringing to the total amount of cash donations to UGX 6 billion.
This comes days after MTN Uganda donated three-four wheels cars to the same cause after the President made a special request on one of his TV live broadcasts for telecom companies to donate more towards COVID-19. Airtel Uganda’s latest donation has not come in the form of cars as the president requested, but as a direct cash contribution to the health sector.
ALSO READ: 7 things Airtel Uganda is doing to support the fight against COVID-19
Airtel Uganda has made other contributions towards COVID-19. On 20th March 2020, the company took the following steps to ensure the free flow of funds among loved ones and also ensure payment of bills and essentials is done remotely to avoid the need for physical cash.
- Sending Airtel to Airtel was made free for a period of 30 days
- Airtel Money wallet to bank and bank to Airtel Money wallet is free for 30 days
- Airtel Money pay charges to the customers and merchants is free for 30 days
The company also zero-rated ‘useful’ websites: Depending on what you think a useful website is, we are sure if we carried out a poll most Ugandans, would have preferred zero-rating OTT or zero-rating social media sites. Just like MTN, Airtel has focused on health and education based websites.
