Over 150 bar owners from Kampala and Mukono have registered for Uganda Breweries Limited’s raising the bar initiative.
The shs3.6bn initiative launched earlier this year is meant to equip businesses in the entertainment
and hospitality sectors with international best practices that will keep their staff and consumers safe when government restrictions are lifted.
While addressing members of the Legit Bar, Entertainment and Restaurant Owners Association (LeBRA) at Casablanca bar in Kampala, Ben Mbuvi, UBL’s sales director said the program will ensure safety for both customers and staff for facilities in the entertainment industry.
“Thirteen months is a long time to be out of business, and we understand that it is very painful. We want to promise you that we will walk down this road with you to the end. It’s going to be painful, but you have a caring partner in UBL,”Mbuvi said.
He added that UBL has engaged several banks to provide funds at the lowest interest rates for these businesses to buy stock without collateral.
“We are partnering with UBL in this program because we have handled the other sectors in the economy and we believe that we should be able to demonstrate that reopening this sector is possible as well,” said Walter Arinaitwe, the deputy director in charge of training at the Infectious Diseases Institute.
Patrick Musinguzi, the Secretary-General of LeBRA encouraged more bar owners to sign up for the capacity-building initiative, adding that the process is very seamless and will stand to benefit all the bar establishments that participate.
Raising the bar initiative is a program adapted from UBL’s mother company, Diageo’s $100 million program that seeks to facilitate Diageo affiliates globally to support their local business partners and boost their capacity to resume operations under the respective national guidelines.
In Uganda, this program is being facilitated under UBL’s flagship brand of Bell Lager which will inject a $1 million(shs3.6bn) fund towards the logistical and physical requirements of the program.
The program is being conducted in partnership with the Infectious Diseases Institute of Makerere University, which among other things, will drive awareness training for the personnel in bars, recreational facilities and similar establishments.
They will also provide the requisite knowledge, social distancing and enhanced hygiene measures that necessary to the prevention of COVID-19 transmission in establishments that carry Uganda Breweries Products.
President Museveni recently said government will only consider reopening bars and other entertainment facilities only if a sizeable number of about eight million Ugandans is vaccinated against the deadly virus.
