President Yoweri Museveni has hit the last nail in the coffin of Uganda’s media industry and could cause an unprecedented paradigm shift if he doesn’t reverse his latest directives.
In a letter dated March 6,2023 to the Prime Minister Robinnah Nabbanja,Museveni has directed Nabbanja to ensure that the national broadcaster receives an annual allocation of Ugx 30bn effective FY2024/2025 among other measures to redeem it.
The President was responding to a letter from the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation Managing Director Winston Agaba.
Mr.Agaba wrote to the preside about underfunding of UBC,delays in the payment of penalties arising from their NSSF and PAYE contributions, use of old and obsolete equipment and the “…denial of advertisements by Accounting Officers..”
However, the proposals by the President can be best described in the kiganda saying “Mu kugoba omunya,ayokezza nyumba? Literally meaning that in lighting a fire to chase lizards, you burnt your house”. The measures will effectively cripple the very vibrant private media that Mr.Museveni has built over the years.
It is likely to result into loss of jobs, loss of business, loss of revenue to the regulator UCC and a paradigm shift in the industry.
The letter casts doubt on its authorship and spirit. How could this come from the very person who liberalized the media industry and is celebrated for the media pluralism and all its benefits today! It would equal to a parent killing his own child.
The letter raises fundamental questions on legality, responsibility and intention. For example, why did the Managing Director write to the President and not his line minister Chris Baryomunsi? Who constitutes the UBC Board and what have they been doing to save the national broadcaster?
Let’s look at the remedies by His Excellency the President one after another;
1.In the budget of 2024/2025, we should start giving them the shs.30bn per annum they have been CRYING about.
The impression is that the state broadcaster has for quite a while been grappling with poor performance arising from lack of funds and they have irritatingly been asking for help. This is the import of the word CRYING ABOUT. But why must a state media have to reach this level of vulnerability without help? Doesn’t it deserve proper funding ordinarily without pleading or did the Minister responsible find it insignificant to have it funded?
The President answers this question in the last paragraph of his letter when he writes “ I saw some allegations of inefficiencies in UBC itself that I will address at an appropriate time”
First, this is an inditement of both the Minister for information Dr.Chris Baryomunsi,the Board of UBC and its management. They are so incompetent that only the President at an “appropriate time” will reorganize and save UBC. How then do you think of sinking shs.30bn in an entity you have realized is inefficient before you address it?
2.All Government advertising must be through the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation. Any Accounting Officer who deviates from this must be dismissed.
Why in the first place were the accounting officers denying UBC advertisements? They were right because the UBC coverage given the inefficiencies, poor funding and old equipment they have is so negligeable to warrant their expenditures.
In fact, the state has heavily relied on the services of private media to reach wider audiences including the cost – free broadcast of state functions.Private media is heavily taxed but struggling to offer the jobs they can to thousands of Ugandans. In fact, during the COVID – 19 lockdown, government relied on private media. Denying them government advertising is driving them out of business and subsequently lead to loss of hundreds of jobs but also cripple earning of the Uganda Communications Commission that collects a lot in license fees.
Is this what the President intended? Is UBC able to handle all government advertising and still remain with sufficient time for community programing?
The President knows how a civil servant is dismissed. Is refusing to place advertisements with UBC sufficient for the dismissal of an accounting officer?
UBC suffers from confused identity, acting like a public broadcaster yet out in the field competing like a privately owned media house. On the face of its management, UBC’s inefficiencies are characteristic of a state enterprise in Uganda.
It must therefore decide to run as merely a public broadcaster or metamorphose into a corporate entity, be equipped and properly managed as a business to compete in the market. In fact state funding is a pain killer not a cure.UBC must be able to use its brand, equipment, good will and infrastructure to make sufficient revenues for its survival. Do a forensic audit and an overhaul of it, modernize its management system and refocus its purpose.
4.The penalties for delays in paying NSSF contributions and PAYE must be scrapped.
Doesn’t this contravene the NSSF Act? What signal does it give to a country now mobilizing everyone to contribute to their social security. How did the delays even come about? If compliance fails in a government entity like UBC how else do we enforce it among the SMEs and the informal sector. Did the Attorney General okay this given its legal implications.
5.The government should take over the debt of UBC.
First, how did the debt come about? How big is the debt? UBC consumes utilities such as water and electricity that form part of the huge debt. Government could ask the state parastatals to waive off this debt instead of scrapping the NSSF and PAYE debts.
The President should treat the cancer once and for all not the symptoms. Do a thorough audit of the entity UBC to reposition it in the modern media market. UBC’s problem is not underfunding that once it gets government advertising it will be resuscitated. Allow the free-market economy to be, let advertisers place their business where they get value instead of suffocating private media that employs thousands, pays huge taxes, has helped promote government programs and improved access to communication.
Did the President author this letter or signed an already prepared document? It is not from the Museveni I know unless otherwise proved beyond my doubt.
