Victor Nkindi is Using the Power of the Media to Drive Civic Education in Rwanda
In 2008, following the deadline set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Rwanda initiated a national digital migration, this move by his home country helped stir up the desire for 2015 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur, Victor Nkindi to start his digital media platform – Hooza.
Victor Nkindi at the 2015 TEF Forum in Lagos, Nigeria
Victor Nkindi is a media professional and Senior Consultant at Hooza, a startup working in the production and distribution of digital content, business development and media Consulting, working in the field of digital media. Hooza was registered in 2012 at Rwanda Development Board and we are a certified media outlet since 2014 by Rwanda Media Commission. With expertise in digital media and communication consultancy, Content Design, Brand Building, Communication Strategic Planning, E-Learning and Mobile VAS Applications in the Great Lakes Region and East Africa Community. Victor and his team at Hooza’s extensive knowledge of digital media, peace building and development in the Great Lake and East African Community gives a large vision for creativity and the potential to elaborate the best communication tool to give access to information offering media services in packages that have been universally accepted by Public and Corporate Institutions.
In just a short time of operation, Victor and the Hooza team have distinguished the art of communication in Rwanda by creating personalized content in Kinyarwanda, Swahili, English and French languages on mobile platforms through text, audio and video content that helps close to 8.5 million mobile users in their daily lives. Hooza has developed the ultimate Mobile Governance tool for African countries used for mass dissemination of audio messages through mobile phones to overcome the barrier of illiteracy. Government organizations during nationwide campaigns are now able to disseminate audio messages to mobile active subscribers-average 80% of the population in Africa. The platform enables interactivity ie: the end user can also record his opinion after listening to the message.
Victor introducing Digital Media to Media Professionals during a VOA Workshop. Kigali-Rwanda
The Hooza solution helps the governments in Africa to extract reliable real-time data on their campaign efficiency (number of subscribers, listeners, audio feedback retrieval…etc), for the forthcoming August 2017 presidential elections in Rwanda, the Hooza platform is been used by the National Electoral Commission to reach out to a maximum of citizen at voting age. The electorates receive daily notifications to listen to an audio message for civic education. With up to 60% of the population of Rwanda under 24 years of age, Hooza reached electorates directly through their mobile phones.
Like any new business Hooza has experienced challenges, including struggling with efforts to educate the audience and prospective clients. Rwanda is embracing an ICT services oriented strategy but some decision makers still struggle to take the movement in motion.
Victor sees learning from these challenges as an opportunity to give back as he now serves as a visiting lecturer at the University of Rwanda, School of Journalism and Communication where he shares with students his experience with New media, innovation and entrepreneurship and as well mentoring young entrepreneurs in Rwanda, sharing with them knowledge and opportunities to help them grow their business. In his words “The university and young persons are the right place to ensure the future generation understand the challenges of creating and using digital media as a business that can benefit the majority of our population.”
The 2015 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur is proud to be amongst the first 15 Rwandans and 1,000 Africans entrepreneurs to be selected and says he has benefited from immensely from the programme through the learning platform which has helped him grow his business, mentorship by having Mr. Sylvere Boussamba an ICT and telecom professional helped him get grounded in the core of communications, networking and the priceless visibility that comes with being a TEF Entrepreneur.
Expanding the scope of operation has come as a core goal for the team as Hooza this year extended it’s service from audio platform to video, and as well commenced operations in Tanzania, Uganda and DR Congo. The strides of this Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur is now being noticed around the world with interest from organizations across Africa, Europe and America. For Victor and his team, the perspectives are great and there is no stopping.
Hooza is present on social networks Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoozaRwanda ; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hoozarwanda/ ; Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hoozateam/ , via email: info@hooza.rw and on the web: www.hooza.rw
