ENT- Musicians in Uganda have been urged to sign up with the Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) Sacco if they are to take advantage of the association’s ‘easy-access loans.
This was revealed by Halima Namakula, the head of loans in the UMA Sacco saying that the loans aim at helping artistes offset Covid-19 impacts.
Namakula however warned that the loans are only meant to be reinvested in profit-seeking businesses and artistes will have to pay them back.
According to Namakula, the association will require a few qualifications, 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 our reporter 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 that the creative industry contributes over 3 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and asking them to not to sideline them.
