By Spy Uganda
This morning TheSpy Uganda run an article about President Yoweri Museveni’s letter directing Prime Minister Robinah Nabanja to ensure that Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) gets a budget of Ugx30B in the 2024/2025 financial year.
Museveni in the same letter directed that all government adverts go to UBC, warning accounting officers in government agencies who wont adhere to this will be fired.
”Using the money generated through adverts, the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation must buy the state of art equipment,” partially reads Museveni’s letter.
He explained that the above decision was after a letter from UBC MD, Winston Agaba who wrote to him ‘crying’ over under-funding by the Government, denial of advertisements by Accounting Officers, the need to pay penalties on delays for their contribution to NSSF and for PAYE and replacement of old equipment.
However, Museveni’s directive on adverts has ignited backlash from National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) members who supports UBC to be given the Ugx30B per year or even more, in order to do their mandate better,but they oppose the idea of monopolizing government adverts to be run by only UBC yet Government uses very often private sector media to reach out to the masses. To them, that would be working against the spirit of promoting private sector led economy which government has been promoting.
”Whereas we agree with the rest of the directives in the letter with emphasis on the need for funding/ financial support by government to UBC/SIGNET to enable it deliver its mandate, We are concerned that the directive will have a chilling effect on accounting officers not to give business to the private sector media players hence affecting our businesses,” says NAB’s in a statement inked by the Association’s Chairman Kin Kariisa.
The Association has reminded government that the private media sector has been supporting various
government projects and campaigns including the Covid 19, Ebola, Emyoga, PDM, and many other developmental, awareness and sensitization initiatives and so it would be regrettable to forget them by withdrawing adverts from them.
”In the above spirit, Please consider this to be our formal and official request that the implementation of the above directive be halted, and a meeting be held with the stakeholders at your earliest convenience to address the concerns and find a viable and lasting solution. We thank you and look forward to your positive consideration,” states NAB.
