David Lukwago finally creeps out of the woodwork.

After exactly 3 years of self-imposed exile, David Lukwago is back, frothing at the mouth. And he doth protest much. Apparently riled by Government of Uganda’s scheme to rail in a whopping Ugx. 14.7 billion under the pretext of COVID-19 communications, he is offering an alternative approach to the whole affair, no doubt from his wide experience in managing public funds. This, from someone who fled Uganda in 2017 in the wake of the spectacular disintegration of Fideli, leaving in his wake a winding trail of unpaid bills... most notably Ugx. 500 million+ owed to NSSF and more than Ugx. 1 billion owed to suppliers. Turns out he has been reading on money management during his exile/sabbatical thing.

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Please share until it reaches the president! 

AN ALTERNATIVE BUDGET OPTION FOR ICT MINISTRY TO CONDUCT COVID19 COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES.

I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about the request by the ICT Ministry requesting UGX 14.7 billion funding from government to implement a Communications campaign. This was after social media was blazing with outrage and anger on what many viewed as opportunistic buy a few people in government. To be different, instead of lamenting and complaining I have decided to offer some ideas. If you find my proposals annoying, you are the right person this writeup is intended for.

Given my experience in advertising and managing communications campaigns for large organisations, I have taken time to redesign this budget based on actual figures and offered my alternative strategic approach to achieve the same goals. 

ICT Budget note 1: Use of Billboards with graphic designs and informative messages to be placed near market. Proposed budget: UGX 3 billion

Alternative Strategy: Since when did we use billboards for infographics (Information and graphs) communication? Infographics advertising is effective when the information is closer to the reader’s eyes. If market dwellers are your target audience, flyers and A2 posters is an effective way to communicate to them.

Budget alternative: UGX 60,000,000 (Sixty Million shillings only – Printing 100,000 A2 colour infographics posters plus the cost of putting them up at the market areas)

ICT Budget note 2: Work with NAB to deliberately show special international COVID messaging on Security reactions across the globe; show extent of damage by the virus; figures and statistics on 5 major TVs and 200 Radio Stations. Proposed Budget: UGX 10 billion!

Alternative Strategy: Radios and Tv stations are already doing a great job of educating and informing the public without being paid for it. In fact, during an NBS TV interview with Minister Ogwang, Presenter Solomon Sserwanga bluntly told the Minister that they were being really unfair asking for such sums of money since they, as the Media were already doing a good job informing people and doing it without asking for pay as this problem concerns all of us. The Minister struggled to answer the question and still had no reasonable excuse for their exaggerations. 

Mister Minister, if you have special content that you want Ugandans to access, media houses will be happy to offer this for free for two reasons. Firstly, since most businesses are closed and hardly anyone is advertising, media houses are stuck with unused advertising airtime. They would be happy to fill this void with public messages if you provide them with content.

Secondly, this is a great time for Media Houses to give back to society through their CSR policies. A healthy listening audience is of interest to media houses as it is to government.

Furthermore, Government issues operating licenses to media houses. It means that there is a symbiotic relationship between media houses and government. The president may make a request (or make an executive order) to all media houses in Uganda to allocate 20 minutes of airtime every day that are dedicated to covid19 messaging. I remember he once made a similar order for media houses to allocate airtime for government technocrats and politicians to explain government programs, media houses obliged. 

Budget Alternative: UGX 200,000,000 (Two hundred million shillings – to collect and coordinate the said messaging)

ICT Budget note 3: Work with different MDAs to implement the Do’s and Don’ts for Media and Security; extract existing laws and refer to the Covid19 SOPs.

Proposed Budget: UGX 10,000,000

Alternative Strategy: I have not understood this activity. I assume that the ICT Ministry already has people whose job is to coordinate information among the various MDAs (Ministries, Department and Authorities. Does it not?

Budget alternative: UGX 0 (Zero)

ICT Budget notes 4 and 5: Over UGX 1 billion for Social Media Activists and for printing stickers. 

Alternative Strategy: My computation for both of these items is under UGX 100,000,000 (One hundred million) – (I’m being generous here)

Total Alternative Budget: UGX 360,000,000 (Three hundred & sixty million shillings only)

Most important to note however, is that Covid19 communication is a behaviour change communication. All health behaviour change communication is done by the Ministry of Health. What different role is the ICT Ministry going to play in this case?

The alternative strategies are provided by David Lukwago, who has over 15 years in communication, with a bias in behaviour change communication. For more information and clarifications please do not hesitate to contact me on davidlukwago76@gmail.com

NOTE: IF THE ICT MINISTRY BUDGET REQUEST OF UGX 14.7 BILLION IS PASSED, I WILL DRAG EVERYONE INVOLVED TO COURTS OF LAW TO INDIVIDUALLY EXPLAIN THE RATIONALE USED FOR THE ALLOCATION.