By Philip Tengzu
Wa, Feb. 01, GNA – NoNi Hub, an Information Technology (IT)][ firm in Wa, has dedicated the MTN AYOBA Accelerator programme prize to the people of the Upper West Region for their diverse contribution to making the hub win the ultimate prize.
The NoNi Hub was adjudged the overall winner of the Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) AYOBA Accelerator programme prize among seven IT Hubs in the country that participated in the programme.
The other IT Hubs that participated were Hapaspace, Wan-Hive, HopIN Academy, iCode, Ispace, and Wizeey Academy.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa on the success chalked, Mr Sumaila Chakurah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Noni Hub, expressed gratitude to the people in the region for their diverse support to the Hub in training start-ups, which enabled them to win the award.
“We are so happy about it and we dedicate the award to the people of Upper West because they all contributed in one way or the other to ensure that we got this award.
We are all proud that we have been able to put the region in the spotlight and we have been able to sign a lifetime partnership with MTN and AYOBA and we only look forward to seeing what good thing can come out of it,” he explained.
Mr Chakurah explained that the Hub would soon roll out a programme to educate people on the importance of the AYOBA platform and how they could get their mobile applications enlisted on the AYOBA platform to enable them increase sales and profitability.
As part of the award, Noni Hub was given GH₵50,000.00 to support its operations, which Mr Chakurah said would be invested into training more start-ups and creating more business opportunities for the young people in the region and beyond.
“We are going to work assiduously to ensure that more start-ups within the region are also given the opportunity to get listed on the AYOBA platform and for us that’s the key thing, it’s not about the money,” Mr Chakurah added.
He encouraged businesses and start-ups that had mobile applications to visit the Hub to get them uploaded onto the AYOBA platform to increase their sales and profitability.
Mr Awal Mohammed, Programmes and Business Development Officer at Noni Hub, explained that the programme was to enable the hubs showcase their contributions to the development of the tech space in the country.
He indicated that as part of the competition, the hubs were expected to, among other things, assist as many startups as possible, be enlisted on the AYOBA platform, and provide the start-ups with technical and business development support.
He said Noni Hub nurtured six start-ups in the transport, food delivery, and E-Commerce industries among others to participate in the AYIBA Accelerator programme, which gave the hub the advantage to emerge as the winner.
AYOBA is a mobile application platform that allows mobile application developers and businesses to upload their web and mobile-based applications onto the platform to make them accessible to users at no cost to the users.
The users could access resources including books, communications, and music among others for free and had millions of users across countries where MTN operated.
GNA