MTN Announces Sponsorship of the 2022 Northern Uganda Music Awards
Gulu, Northern Uganda: As the biggest supporter of Uganda’s music, MTN Uganda has today announced its sponsorship of the Northern Uganda Music Awards. The announcement was made today in a press conference held at the Elephante Hotel in Gulu City.
This follows a series of Music concerts that MTN Uganda has supported this year since the reopening of the economy in a bid to support the music industry that was hard hit during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Northern Uganda Music Awards (NUMA) are the region’s oldest and biggest annual musical event that aims at promoting and rewarding both establish and upcoming musicians inspiring change through the power of their voice.
Speaking at the launch press conference, Aggrey Byaruhanga, the MTN Uganda Northern Region Business Manager said that MTN has over the years strongly supported Ugandan music artistes and commits to continue doing the same as a way of rewarding and nurturing music talent in the country.
“We as MTN, are therefore happy to celebrate the great music and entertainment talent in our country. As part of our support towards the NUMA, we shall be contributing towards the award prizes as well as providing record deals with the best producers to the top 4 artistes of these awards,” Byaruhanga said.
This year, apart from winners walking away with cash prizes, MTN has offered 100% free studio recording to 4 winners in the categories of; Artiste of the year, Male artiste of the year, Female artiste of the year and upcoming artiste of the year categories.
Juma Muhammed Okot, the NUMA founder hailed MTN for supporting the established and emerging talent in Northern Uganda.
“The NUMA event remains the oldest and best musical event in the region bringing together thousands of revealers in a night of great music, dance and comedy. It is a moment when the region comes together to witness their stars perform in anticipation to walk home with the prestigious NUMA awards. As such, we thank MTN for being a part of this great celebration,” Okot said.
The awards night that is slated for 1st January 2023 at Pece Stadium in Gulu city boasts of a unique line up of Artists and acts ranging from traditional dance performances, urban music genres like Hiphop, Reggae, Gospel and Dance Hall music making it the number one go spot for full cultural and urban music experience.
On top of the 25 categories for the awards, this edition introduces a special category known as the CallerTunez Category with a special prize to be unveiled at the awards ceremony.
Besides the sponsorship packages that MTN has offered to the artistes, the telecom has subsidized the Awards concert fees for the fans who will pay for their concert tickets through MTN’s Mobile Money platform.
Registration and Nominations:
The registration kicks off today, Thursday 08th December 2022 with artistes picking registration forms from different radio stations in Northern Uganda as well as online registration.
At the end of registration process, Nominees will be selected through regular radio calling programs across all the radio stations in the region and confirmed by the committee in charge of the final selection.
This be followed by a multi-layered judging process by renowned music critics who go on to assess the impact, technical quality, uniqueness and style of these selected songs in respective categories.
Established in 2003, the Northern Uganda Music Awards (NUMA), are the region’s oldest and biggest musical event that aims at promoting and rewarding both establish and upcoming musicians inspiring change through the power of their voice attracting thousands of revelers. Now in its 17th year, the awards focus mainly on rewarding established and emerging talents in music, dance and drama, film and comedy from Acholi, Lango, and West Nile sub regions.