Tag: Hubtel Pledge

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.

Accra – Ghana’s indigenous eCommerce & SMS messaging company, Hubtel.com, has donated furniture and equipment valued at Eighty Thousand Cedis (GHS 80,000) to support the refurbishment of a new call center. The call center is an initiative of the Ministry of Communication in the fight against Covid-19.

Hubtel.com made the donation in response to requests made by the Minister of Communications, Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, at a recent press briefing urging the private sector to augment the government’s efforts at making accurate, reliable information about this novel virus accessible to the public. By ensuring the flow of useful information, the ministry hopes to improve early detection, reporting, and surveillance, and provide an avenue for prompt interventions. The donation which was received at the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) on behalf of the Minister by its Director General, Richard Okyere-Fosu, and his Deputy Director General, Kwaku Kyei Ofori, included office furniture, laptops, call center headsets, Covid-19 sanitation materials and several meters of network cables.

The donation forms part of Hubtel’s commitment to invest in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic by ensuring that staff, customers, suppliers, and the community at large are supported in diverse ways to stay safe. In her note of acknowledgment, the Minister of Communication stated that “It’s a remarkable gesture. I have the utmost pleasure of saying ‘Thank you’, to Hubtel on behalf of the government and people of Ghana”. The Minister further commented that the donation will go a long way to help set up the unit.

Speaking at the presentation, the General Manager of Hubtel, Ernest Apenteng emphasized that “Our donation to this call center is motivated by people’s desire for accurate, credible and timely information about Covid-19, especially in this era where so much fake news and information abounds.” “Hubtel’s contribution in this war is to give support to those areas that we are not doing so well for lack of poor information delivery, for example, some recovered patients are reportedly been stigmatized on return to their communities. And there are many to whom access to essential information is not so simple. Therefore, we have committed to prioritize delivering information on these essential needs.”

Present at the donation were some management and staff members of Hubtel who urged the general public to continue to heed the health advice by maintaining physical distancing, wearing face masks,s and washing hands regularly. They also urged the public to use technology services as much as possible to avoid personal contact.

Ghana has confirmed over 5000 cases of the novel coronavirus and 22 deaths. In the wake of the pandemic, the government has put in place measures to help with containment, treatment, and accurate information dissemination.

The Covid-19 call center is set up to respond to inquiries from the public about the virus. The center can be reached via 0307007001

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.

The soul of crime in the country has found some new bravado and as a result, our law enforcement bodies are tweaking and turning the cogwheels of their logistical machinery so they can adequately face these crimes.

As part of this, the Ghana Police Service is embarking on a Police Transformation Initiative to deploy systems and initiate changes that will allow the outfit to tackle the increasing complexity of criminal offenses and face new threats squarely. The Initiative is also aimed at making the Ghana Police Service one of the top ten in the world within four years.

Dissemination of information in a convenient, secure, and timely manner is very crucial to the success of this Programme. This is why the Ghana Police Service has partnered with Hubtel as a key technology partner.

Under the arrangement, Hubtel will offer its platform for the delivery of text-based communication to and from over 30,000 police personnel across the country. This is to facilitate the collection of data to gain reliable insights on important public opinion through mobile feedback, and swiftly deliver emergency information to millions of citizens.

Hubtel is a company that delivers simple, practical tools to help Ministries, Municipalities, Districts and Authorities (MMDAs) manage and organize payments, send vital notifications via SMS and citizen self-service via USSD, towards better citizen engagement, as a key technology partner.