African pop star sings Indian-run firm`s corporate anthem

Kampala: Top African pop star and song writer Grace Nakimera has composed a corporate anthem to mark 20 years of Kiboko group, an Indians-run industrial house.

The anthem, co-composed by an Indian corporate social responsibility consultant Rajesh Kalra, will be released Friday in the Ugandan capital. Kalra said the anthem will be a fusion of Indo-African music and contain Hindi words. "I am trying to make Grace Nakimera sing in Hindi," Kalra told IANS. He said the lyrics of the anthem have been designed by the duo of Sanjeev Gupta, chief executive officer, Kiboko Enterprises, and Rukmini Bonthala, executive director of the company. Nakimera has signed a lucrative deal with Kiboko Group for the anthem. "I trust we had one of the craziest, sickest video shooting ever in Uganda featuring more than 50 Kikobo Group employees," Nakimera posted Wednesday on the social networking site facebook. To mark the 20 years of its existence, Kiboko Group targets to make a world record by spreading 375,000 soap bars on a vast ground in Kampala. The medicated soap bars will be later distributed among students in more than 200 schools around Uganda in a bid to promote hygiene. "We are really happy to trigger off the month-long nationwide campaign to educate school children about the health benefits of washing hands with soap as we distribute over 375,000 bars of soap free through 200 schools in 32 districts, across Uganda," said Rasik Shah, director, Kiboko Group, in a statement. Kiboko Group`s initiative is aimed at creating awareness about sanitation in Uganda where, according to official statistics, almost 75 percent diseases are linked to poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation facilities and practices. Kiboko Enterprises deals in a range of areas including electrical, construction, agriculture and general merchandise. The company also operate in Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. IANS