Empowering digital innovation and shouldering Kuwaiti sports: Zain’s top contributions in 2022

Kuwait: The year 2022 shaped up to be a turning point for Kuwait and the entire world, as most governments and nations started to loosen restrictions on social gathering and lift lockdowns. With normal life returning to its natural course, Zain sought to make a strong comeback by supporting and adopting a wide range of initiatives and projects within the community’s most vibrant sectors.

Zain’s social efforts and contributions have always stemmed from the company’s comprehensive sustainability and social responsibility strategy, which has always centered around building solid strategic partnerships with nonprofits, NGOs, global organizations, and the nation’s private and public sectors. Relying on such partnerships, Zain continues to move forward towards its goal of empowering local talents towards showing their creativity, fulfilling their passion, and achieving their aspirations.

As ever, Zain continues to allocate a big portion of its social efforts to enrich the digital innovation ecosystem, empower new entrepreneurs, and support owners of local startups. In 2022, the company continued to show unwavering support to rising talents to provide them with opportunities for sustainable growth and help them put a first step in the business world.

In the following report, Zain showcases some of its top programs and projects from 2022:

Supporting Kuwaiti sports

In November 2022, Zain announced its partnership with the Kuwait Football Association, where it became the Official Sponsor of the KFA’s competitions for the next four seasons (2022-2026), including the Kuwaiti Premier League (now known as Dawri Zain) and the First Division League. The company also supports H.H. the Amir’s Cup, H.H. the Crown Prince’s Cup, and the KFA Cup (Zain Cup).

Moving forward, Zain’s role centers around three main areas; supporting athletes with cash prizes, launching social events and interacting with fans at stadiums, and the first-ever Fantasy Football League in Kuwaiti football’s history.

Zain offers KD 50,000 of prizes per season, the biggest prize pool ever to be distributed in the Kuwaiti League’s history. By dedicating cash prizes for athletes, the company seeks to encourage players to pursue excellence, ultimately elevating the league’s performance.

Zain also organizes many social programs and exciting events for fans, including hosting restaurants, cafes, and local SMEs around stadiums to offer their services to fans, especially during big matches like derbies, classicos, and finals. The company also presents special competitions, prizes, and giveaways on the stands and on its social media channels.

Saving the best for last, Zain unveiled a surprise for fans of Kuwaiti football: the first-ever local Fantasy Football League competition for the Kuwaiti Premier League, through which it aspires to bring Kuwaiti football into the digital era.

Fantasy Football is one of the most popular games in European leagues, and Zain sought to offer Kuwaiti fans the same experience in a 100% local flavor. Zain’s Fantasy Football League offers users a thrilling experience to pick their own teams and compete with other players to achieve fantasy league titles. To encourage fans to play, compete, and passionately follow their teams, Zain offers winners with a cash prize pool of KD 10,000.

Empowering entrepreneurs and enriching digital innovation

Continuing its efforts to empower new entrepreneurs and grow the local digital innovation ecosystem, Zain launched the seventh season of its renowned Zain Great Idea tech startup accelerator program in September 2022. The all-new season continues the program’s mission to enrich the tech startup ecosystem in Kuwait and further push it forward towards expansion into the MENA region.

Entering its second decade, Zain’s program offers an all-new experience for the next generation of entrepreneurs, offering greater flexibility and more freedom for every participant to choose the sessions and programs that best suit their schedules and business needs. Zain also expanded the content and activities of the program to take entrepreneurs to top regional destinations, including Riyadh, Cairo, and Dubai to expose them to the best experiences and success stories from other entrepreneurs, investors, and accelerators from the region and world.

Supporting education, environment, and health programs

Throughout 2022, Zain supported a plethora of education, environment, and health programs to achieve its strategic social sustainability vision and contribute to local and global sustainable goals.

Zain participated in the special event to celebrate UN Day 2022 under the title: “Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition.” The ceremony celebrated the United Nations’ 77th anniversary and the 60th year of Kuwait’s membership in the UN, and Zain’s participation came as part of its long-term strategic partnership with the UN and its own unwavering commitment to tackle climate change.

Zain also continued its strategic partnership with ‘Kuwait Codes’, the educational coding program for high school students organized by CODED Academy to empower the next generation of young Kuwaiti coders. The initiative, in its second year, aims at creating a technically advanced generation by offering the opportunity for high school students to learn and develop programming skills at four main streams: developing iPhone and Android apps, designing websites, and building video games.

In August, Zain continued its strategic partnership with the Ministry of Interior to organize a special Drug Abuse Awareness Exhibition to showcase the government’s untiring efforts to combat drug abuse. Zain’s role in this initiative did not stop at the exhibition but extended to launching a comprehensive social media campaign on its official channels, titled #CloserThanYouThink, to share the latest official drug-related statistics from MOI.

Zain also sponsored the seventh season of the KON Social Entrepreneurship Program, organized by LOYAC in collaboration with Babson College in Boston. During its support to the program’s past four seasons, Zain received amazing feedback from young ambitious youth who had a keen interest in entrepreneurship in Kuwait. The program continued to empower young students, guide them to discover their potential, and lead them towards success, helping unleash their creativity and fulfill their ambitions.

Continuing its support to health programs, Zain sponsored a special event held to celebrate World Diabetes Day organized by Jaber Al Ahmad Hospital’s Endocrine and Diabetes Division at the Avenues Mall. Zain considers itself an active partner of the local health sector and the nation’s various institutions to raise social awareness and improve public health, and the company’s support to this special initiative came as part of its keenness to support any efforts that contribute to creating a healthy attitude towards chronic diseases within the community, especially diabetes, one of the most widespread diseases in Kuwait.

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