President Yoweri Museveni has pledged to inject Shs5 billion into a SACCO for content creators, saying their work plays a critical role in promoting locally made products and expanding markets for Ugandan businesses.
Speaking during the Jazz with Jajja ranch edition at his farm in Kisozi in Gomba district, Museveni described content creation as a modern layer in the chain of wealth creation, particularly in marketing and sales promotion.
“What you are calling content is sales promotion for people to know about goods and people buy it,” he said.
The President noted that just as companies traditionally spent money on television and radio advertising, the rise of social media has created a new group of operators who package and present products directly to consumers online.
“In the chain of wealth creators, a layer of operators has come up to use social media as an easy way of communication to package and present products to the consumers,” Museveni said, adding that such efforts are useful, especially when they promote local products.
He encouraged content creators to focus on marketing Ugandan goods both locally and internationally, arguing that this would position them as valuable partners in national development.
“That should be supported, especially if you are promoting local products. Then you become a useful partner,” he said.
Museveni drew parallels with earlier decades, recalling how manufacturers in East Africa heavily invested in advertising. He cited the example of Nytil, a textile brand produced in Jinja in the 1960s, which was widely promoted across the region.
“I remember in the 1960s in the whole of East Africa, you would hear people advertising Nytil Jinja,” he said.
The proposed Shs5 billion injection into the content creators’ SACCO, he explained, is intended to strengthen organised groups within the sector and enable them to professionalise and expand their operations.
“If you have got groups doing that, we shall support them,” Museveni said.
The move signals growing government recognition of the digital economy and the role of creative industries in driving consumption, supporting local enterprises and contributing to wealth creation.
