By Spy Uganda
It was pomp and glamour on Saturday 26th August 2023 at Fairway Hotel where Pan African Pyramid (PAP) an umbrella organization for Pan Africanists across the globe, hosted the 6th edition of its awards commonly known as PAP Global Awards, an event that attracted hundreds of Pan Africanists to celebrate their forefathers.
The event that saw hundreds of participants proudly clad in their charming African attires was graced by famous Pan-Africanist dubbed Seventh Day Adventist Church Bishop Joshua Marara III Maponga from Zimbabwe and his wife, Cuban Ambassador to Uganda H.E Mrs.Tania Perez, UN Peace Keeping Ambassador to East Africa HE. Paul Flynn, a representative from the family of Martin Luther King Junior, and officials from various pro-African NGOs, cultural chiefs and politicians.
This year, PAP recognized 11 Pan Africanists, among them including Dr Kin Kariisa who scooped African Transformative Leader (Media & ICT) Award.
Here We Analyse Why PAP Awarding Committee Recognized Kariisa;
Dr.Kin Kariisa (born 24 August 1976) is a Ugandan businessman, media proprietor and philanthropist. He is the CEO of Next Media Services, a multimedia company in Uganda mostly known for its flagship television network, NBS Television.
Kariisa started out as a barber in Mbarara Town before joining Makerere University, where he would later start developing web applications for a Danish company, Metrocomia Uganda Ltd. in 2000.
He later quit and started his own company, Kin Systems, one of Uganda’s first ICT companies. Courtesy of his success with Kin Systems, Kariisa was contracted by President Yoweri Museveni to build for him a campaign system that would automatically send SMS messages to mobile phones. He was later on appointed Assistant Presidential Advisor on Information Communications and Technology (ICT).
Kariisa took over NBS Television from its founder, Nathan Igeme Nabeeta, in 2008 as CEO and grew it into Next Media Services, a multimedia company that runs three television stations (NBS Television, Sanyuka TV & Salam TV, NBS Sport), a radio station (NXT Radio– formerly Jazz FM) in 2018, online news portal (Nile Post), digital communications agency and production houses (Next Communications & Next Production). His radio station, NXT Radio, is Uganda’s pioneer audiovisual radio station.
Currently, Kin is serving his second term as Chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), an umbrella association for media owners in Uganda.
In 2012, he was appointed Director of Ecobank Uganda Limited, one of the largest banks in Africa for 7 years, and appointed chairman board of directors in 2019 for the “Pan African Bank.”
He is also the chairman board of directors for Nile Hotel International Ltd., the Government enterprise that owns Kampala Serena Hotel.
Kin also serves as the chairman board of directors for Soliton Telmec, the leading telecommunications technology company in East Africa.
He was named among the most influential Ugandans in 2019 in a survey conducted by Public Opinions International, a Pan-African Organization. Out of his own Pan-Africanism conviction, Kin has since offered a full one hour airtime on NBS Television every Saturday 4-5pm and Mondays 2-3pm to Pan-African Pyramid to further the Pan-African agenda.
To sum it up, if you’re looking for an African from Uganda who pioneered in the ICT transformational journey in Uganda, and used it to positively create hundreds of jobs for the youth, and transformed the Media Industry, then look no further than Dr Kin Kariisa.
