* 200 million to tune into season four, running from February 27 to June 2010

* Viewers to win big prizes in Zain's interactive SMS contest

* Show to be broadcast simultaneously on satellite across the whole of Africa

24th February 2010 -Zain is happy to announce the fourth season of the hugely popular Zain Africa Challenge, the first ever televised international academic quiz show featuring Africa's top university students and which will be watched by more than 200 million people across Africa.
 
Between November 2009 and January 2010, 100 teams from the leading universities in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia competed in preliminary national tournaments to qualify for the right to represent their countries and share in the US$1 million worth of prize money, which will be shared among all the contestants based on their ranking in the tournament. The tough and challenging competitive nature of this year's contest saw several of the universities that made it to the 2009 finals, not qualify again this year, with many of Africa's best known universities failing to make the cut.
 
The top 32 teams advanced to the International Championship Festival, held in Uganda where they faced tough competition in the playoff games to emerge in the final rounds of the competition, which will be aired locally on terrestrial television stations in the eight competing countries.
 
Also, for the first time ever, the contest will be shown simultaneously across the whole of Africa on the DSTV satellite platform to over 700 million people on Magic World on Mondays at 7:30 pm CAT starting 1st March, 2010 on Africa Magic Plus on Tuesdays at 9:20 am and 6:20 pm CAT, and Wednesdays at 12:30 am CAT starting 4th March. The 16 week season kicks off with Uganda's Makerere University competing against the University of Malawi.
 
The knock-out contest is part of Zain's efforts to promote education and emphasize Zain's corporate commitment to creating 'A wonderful world'" for its customers. Announcing the upcoming programme, Chris Gabriel Zain CEO Africa said, "Zain Africa Challenge is a powerful testimony of the company's commitment to the advancement of youth talent through its support for education as well as its social and community initiatives. This is what our wonderful world of Zain is all about."
 
The Ministries of Education in each country along with the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) are key educational partners in the programme. Meanwhile, the contest has grown more interactive for players, University administrators, alumni and viewing public with a presence on Facebook and Twitter.
 
The questions in this fast-paced quiz cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, African culture, geography, literature, music and current affairs. Furthermore, Zain Africa Challenge, or ZAC as it has become fondly known, highlights the excellent educational opportunities at African universities with videos and student profiles. John Sibi-Okumu, fondly referred to as Mwalimu (teacher in Swahili) returns yet again as the host/presenter of the show which will begin airing on TV stations across Africa this February.
 
Season three of the Zain Africa Challenge, which was held last year, saw first time participants The University of Ibadan (UI) from Nigeria emerge victorious in the heated 'battle of brains'. For its efforts, UI was awarded a US$ 50,000 grant from Zain, while each team member received US$ 5,000. In second place was Kenyatta University, which won a grant of US$ 35,000, while each team member went home with US$3,500. All the other schools that participated in the tournament received grants ranging from US$ 5,000 to US$ 25,000.
 
ZAC Season four highlights include new and exciting online competitions at: www.facebook.com/ILoveZainAfricaChallenge, featuring weekly prizes, including laptops and US$100 worth of Zain airtime; voting across Africa to select the weekly Player of the Game with US$1,000 up for grabs; and audience prizes, including top-of-the-range internet-enabled Nokia mobile phones with full music, video and map functions. ZAC can also be followed on www.twitter.com/ZainAfChl
 
For more information please visit http://www.zainafricachallenge.com or contact: info@zain.com
 
University teams qualified for the International Championship Festival are:

Ghana
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology
University for Development Studies
University of Ghana
Valley View University

Kenya
Africa Nazarene University
Egerton University
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology
Kenya Methodist University
Maseno University 

Malawi
Malawi Adventist University
Mzuzu University
University of Malawi
 
Nigeria
University of Ibadan
University of Abuja
University of Jos
University of Maiduguri
University of Nigeria

Sierra Leone
Njala University
University of Sierra Leone

Tanzania
Ardhi University
Mzumbe University
Tumaini University
University of Arusha
University of Zanzibar

Uganda
Makerere University
Uganda Martyrs University
Uganda Christian University
Kyambogo University 
Mbarara  University

Zambia
Copperbelt University
University of Zambia
Zambia Adventist University

-Ends-

About Zain
Zain is a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa providing mobile voice and data services to over 70 million active customers as at 30 September, 2009 with a commercial presence in 23 countries.

Zain operates in the following countries: Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In Lebanon, the company manages 'mtc-touch' on behalf of the government. In Morocco, Zain owns 31% of Wana Telecom through a joint venture.

Zain offers innovative services in its markets such as 'One Network', the world's first borderless mobile telecommunications network enabling customers when abroad to receive calls and sms without charge and to make voice and data calls at local rates throughout 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East. This service allows a customer to top up airtime in their home country or from more than 1,000,000 outlets within Zain's 'One Network' footprint.

The Zain brand is wholly owned by Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC, which is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Stock ticker: ZAIN). Zain is listed in the Financial Times' Global 500 Index which ranks the world's largest companies based on market capitalization (http://www.ft.com/reports/ft5002008). For more, please visit www.zain.com  or email info@zain.com

© Press Release 2010