MTN Uganda Revamps Mypakapaka, Unveils New Hip Hop Talent

MTN Uganda has revamped its innovative voice bundles called MyPakaPaka to motivate customers by giving them more time to talk. Somdev Sen, MTN Uganda’s Chief Marketing Officer, said the revamp is part of the telecom company’s drive to offer affordability to customers while maintaining value. “In these times of economic difficulty, MTN is committed to offering affordable voice solutions that fit the budget of every customer. We are delighted to announce improved offers that provide significantly more minutes for customers to keep in touch with their friends and loved ones,” he said.

The refreshed MyPakaPaka voice bundles come at a time when more people have to communicate with customers remotely and also when family and loved ones can mainly stay in touch on phone, making it very relevant in the lives of Ugandans at this time.

MyPakaPaka is a voice offering from MTN that was developed using customer’s usage behaviour and average spend to create various 24-hour bundles that are suited to each customer’s pocket. The bundles are for varied durations up to 100 minutes a day depending on a customer’s usage pattern.

“MyPakaPaka represents one of the best calling options for the public who are using the MTN network. It offers customers great value, allowing them to connect day and night affordably and now with the revamp. There are even more minutes allowing for more talk,” Somdev added. MTN customers have a unique offer tailored to suit both their budget and talking needs. In addition to minutes, MyPakaPaka also comes with SMS bundles.

To activate and buy MyPakaPaka, the MTN customer is required to dial *160*1# and select their preferred bundle.
In addition, the annual MTN Pulse Hip Hop awards that recognise and celebrate growth in the hip hop music genre in the country were held recently with a number of new artists walking away with awards. As anticipated at the launch of these awards early last month, this year’s awards were bigger and better with the introduction of the Cypher competition that allowed new and undiscovered talent to showcase their abilities in an online hip hop rap battle that was subjected to a vote.

Charles Ameto emerged as the first-ever winner of this challenge. He walked away with Ushs 1 million. The first, second, and third runner-ups walked away with Ushs 800,000, Ushs 600,000, and Ushs 400,000 respectively.
Somdev Sen, the MTN marketing Chief said the decision to support the awards is based on the fact that hip hop is still the most preferred music genre in Uganda especially among the youth, thus the need to support the music genre to grow to its full potential.

“Hip hop remains a favourite music genre for most of the youths in this country as it allows them to express themselves and be who they want to be without limits. This is the true spirit of MTN Pulse. We are about creating a community of like-minded people who are young at heart and want to live life without fear or limits to their potential. That is why we are happy to be part of these awards every year,” Somdev said.

2021 marks the fifth year that MTN Uganda has backed the hip hop industry to organise these awards. As part of efforts to support the industry, MTN in 2020 sponsored the first televised rap battles that saw several rappers pitched against each other in battle categories that included battles on the street, freestyle, and in the forest among others.

In this year’s newest category, the Cypher challenge, Charles Ameto’s rap video had the highest engagements thus making him the first-ever winner of the new category. The popular hip-hop star, Navio who walked away with a couple of awards noted that the hip-hop industry has continued to record steady progress with hip hop artists getting favorable airplay on local radio and television stations.

“Hip hop artists continue to shine out there. If you listen to the top twenty most requested songs on the radio today, about 10 or more of them will be hip-hop songs. And Uganda is one of the very few countries with hip-hop awards, which has supported us to grow,” Navio said.

The colorful awards ceremony was attended by a number of lucky pulsers who engaged in lots of fun activities and an array of thrilling entertainment from the finest in the Hip-Hop industry.

According to Somdev, it’s easy for youth to become MTN Pulser. All they have to do is simply download the Pulse App available on both Google Play and iOS play stores. The MTN Pulse app is an interactive platform where everything about the Pulse Nation lives including the funkiest content and offers from MTN Uganda.