Musicians urged to register with UMA Sacco to benefit from ‘quick’ loans

Musicians have been urged to sign up with the Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) Sacco, to take advantage of the association’s ‘easy-access loans.

Speaking to Nile Post on Thursday, Halima Namakula, who is the head of loans in the UMA Sacco said that the loans seek to help artistes offset Covid-19 impacts.

“If you are an artiste, register in the Sacco and be a full-time member, then come to us, we shall give you the loan after confirming your data and what you are going to use the money for,” Namakula said.

Namakula however warned that the loans are only meant to be reinvested in profit-seeking businesses and artistes will have to pay them back.

“They will pay them back with a little interest, after a specific period of time as stipulated by the loans committee of the UMA Sacco,” Namakula said.

Namakula said that the association will ask for a few requirements, which artistes will be asked to present before being granted the loans.

The exercise started on Thursday last week, as the UMA Sacco gave out small loans to member artistes who had applied for them.

Some of the artistes that talked to this website said that the loans will go a long way to help invest in their other businesses since the music industry is currently under lockdown.

Namakula was however quick to note that the association has only Shs100 million available to them, and therefore they can not borrow a lot of money.

UMA board member, Isaac Rucci called for government support, saying the creative industry contributes over 3 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and urged the government not to sideline them.

“Bank of Uganda did a research and our contribution was 3 percent which is almost Shs800 million, so if artistes could do that, this was 2017, without government intervention, what we are saying to government is that with your intervention we can contribute more, which means URA can contribute more taxes, we need a bailout,” Rucci said.