Tag: CSR

Ghana’s fast-pacing eCommerce, SMS messaging, and leading enhanced payments service provider, Hubtel, has honored its annual 1% Pledge with a donation to support International Youth Day 2021, organized by the African Business Centre for Developing Education (ABCDE).

The donation makes Hubtel, the first sponsor to support the preparation and organization of the upcoming event in August 2021. International Youth Day 2021 is an educational initiative, which focuses on helping business communities deliver various services towards improving the educational sector. A goal that aligns with Hubtel Pledge’s mission of supporting causes that enhance the quality of life in our communities.

The Hubtel Pledge Team, led by the General Manager, Ernest Apenteng, made the donation on Thursday, June 3^rd 2021, to Dr Ekow Spio-Garbrah and his Team, at the premises of the African Business Center for Developing Education Africa House, Nyadji Crescent, Asylum Down Accra, Ghana.

Ernest Apenteng in addition, emphasized on the main reason for the donation and the long-term benefits that would be derived from the partnership, especially for the youth from mentorship programs and career guidance to future projects, and Hubtel’s participation in the International Youth Day 2021 event.

Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah acknowledged and expressed his profound gratitude and appreciation towards the kind gesture, iterated the fact that the partnership between Hubtel and ABCDE would not be a one-time thing, and further pronounced that the donation would go a long way to help with the initiative at hand.

About Hubtel Pledge

The Hubtel Pledge supports causes that enhance the quality of life in the communities where we live and work. We commit 1% of profit, 1% of paid employee time, and 1% of products to serve our communities. By committing to the global Pledge 1% in 2017, Hubtel became the first local tech company to join the ranks of Salesforce, Atlassian, TechCrunch, among a legion of other Silicon Valley companies. Read more here.

5 Schools in Accra Receive ICT Equipment from Hubtel 

Hubtel, Ghana’s leading bulk messaging and e-commerce platform provider, has donated ICT equipment to 5 schools in the Greater Accra Region as part of the company’s social responsibility commitments. 

Hubtel is Ghana’s first tech company to become a member of the globally acclaimed Pledge 1% in 2017. By this, Hubtel pledged to give 1% of profits, 1% of products, and 1% of paid employee time towards charitable courses. 

According to the founders of Pledge 1%, “the initiative is a global movement to create a new normal in which giving back is integrated into the DNA of companies of all sizes. Pledge 1% encourages and challenges individuals and companies to Pledge 1% of equity, profit, product, and/or employee time for their communities.”   

The items donated to the 5 schools included laptops, projectors, projector screen stands, speakers, microphones, internet routers, and other computer peripherals. The schools were selected by employees of Hubtel after several visits to understand the challenges the schools face in the teaching and learning of information technology subjects. 

The first donation at the St Paul Primary & Junior High School, Kpehe – Accra New Town, was received by the assistant headmaster of the school. Also present were the Chairperson of the PTA and a section of the school pupils.  

Making the donations at St Paul Primary & JHS, Alex Bram, CEO of Hubtel emphasized that “We [Hubtel] ultimately want to transform the time for teaching and learning ICT into one filled with memorable moments and lots of fun. Schoolchildren should not be intimidated by technology.  What we are doing is to provide early access to quality computer education for these pupils. We wish to see more school children take computing programs at higher levels because we believe the illiterates of the future will be people who cannot use computers”. 

Other schools that received similar donations were Liberty Avenue 2 JHS at Adabraka, Dr. FV Nanka-Bruce Junior High at Korle-Gonno, the Nima Cluster of Schools, and the Bethel AME Zion JHS at Ashaiman.  

These schools either had one PC for teaching and learning or none at all. In coming to the aid of the schools, school officials expressed relief and gratitude for the donations. Mr Michael Owusu, Assistant Headmaster at the St Paul Primary and JHS speaking to journalists after the donations was beside himself with joy, ”It really feels special. For more than three years, we’ve made frantic efforts to acquire these items with little success. Now, our pupils can have a real chance to understand better what they are taught. This is a moment of pride for us”.

Hubtel was founded in May 2005 on the campus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. In its 14 years of operation, the company has carved a reputation as a trusted and admirable tech brand across Africa. Starting with a bulk SMS messaging platform, the company has evolved into the e-commerce space – offering businesses tools to enhance the customer shopping experience; in-store, online, and mobile.  

In becoming a signatory to Pledge 1%, Hubtel joined the ranks of Silicon Valley giants like Salesforce, Yahoo, Box, Glassdoor, DocuSign, and other leading companies in over 100 countries.

Ever since we at Hubtel heard Baffour Awuah Tabury’s touching story on Citi FM, we have made it one of our 2017 goals to “Make Baffour Walk Again.” 

Before everything changed on the road to realizing his dreams and making his mother proud, Baffour was a final-year student at the University of Cape Coast and getting ready to graduate. He was involved in a motor accident that left him paralyzed from his waist down in 2007. Due to this unfortunate turn of events, Baffour had difficulty controlling his urine and bowels. Like any loving and caring mother will do, Baffour’s mum resolved to do everything in her power to see her son walk again. This included burning over GHS 200,000 of her personal savings and investments on various procedures and two surgeries in Ghana. Last year, Baffour successfully had another surgery in China which restored his urinary and bowel control. 

For Baffour to walk again, the next step will be to undergo physiotherapy at NextStep Orlando (no pun intended). This physiotherapy center in Orlando, Florida treats patients who have injured their spinal cords so they can fully recover their functions. Amazing right? Yes, but this procedure will cost a cool GHS 87,000 ($19,200). And this is where Hubtel comes in. 

We have developed a Point of Sale platform called the Hubtel POS. This platform is tailored to allow businesses to accept payments and charity organizations to receive funds from all mobile money wallets and bank cards in their stores, online, or on the go into one account. With our POS, we eliminate the burden of having to hold four different phone numbers to receive payments. Making it easier for everyone who is touched to help resolve situations like Baffour’s, to make a donation to help Baffour walk again. 

So now how do I donate to this cause? It’s simple – just dial *713*7140# on your phone – it doesn’t matter which network you’re on, follow the instructions, and make a donation. Think of it this way: if 8,700 individuals make a donation of GHS10, Baffour’s dream of walking again will be realized. 

Hubtel has not only provided this shortcode to ease Baffour’s access to donations for his surgery, we are also waiving all network charges associated with mobile money transfers made to this donation.  

So go ahead. Dial *713*7140#, and let’s make Baffour walk again!