NAB tables proposal to rescue struggling media houses
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has proposed that every government programme should have a 2 to 5 percent budget component for sensitization and awareness.
This money, NAB said, will be dedicated towards buying airspace across all media platforms.
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Appearing before the parliamentary committee on National Economy, NAB officials led by their chairperson, Kin Kariisa, said media houses had incurred a number of bills during the Covid-19 period.
They asked government to clear the outstanding debts to the media houses amounting to Shs 15 billion to help the companies recover financially.
Yet fundamentally the officials argued that for media houses to stay in business during this challenging time, there is need for government to start considering setting aside 2%-5% percent budget component for sensitization and awareness.
"This is how many of our members shall stay in business," said Kariisa.
NAB said that on average, media houses have lost up to 60 percent of their advertisers, who were also hit hard by Covid-19.
The broadcasters' body advised government to introduce a tax on the international content distributors such as Google, YouTube and Facebook.
They requested government to lift the threshold for PAYE to 600,000 to enable employees at the bottom of the pyramid get some relief to be able to take care of themselves and their families.
In the same meeting, the acting executive Director of the Uganda Communications Commission, Irene Kaggwa told legislators that revenue from voice and mobile data has declined during the Covid-19 period.
NAB's proposals were supported by many members of the committee.
Mps concerned with the high cost of Internet.
UCC before the committee on National Economy
