Musicians eat sh33b in first national financial year budget release

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Musicians have eaten big in the new budget release announced on July 15, 2025.

According to the Government limit expenditure for quarter one release announced by finance ministry permanent secretary Ramathan Ggoobi, a total of shillings 33 billion has been released to Ugandan musicians to meet a number of demands that were presented to the Government.

Without providing a breakdown of the allocations, Ggoobi said the money is to cater for the enforcement of the copyright law, purchase of a state-of-the-art home and also a revolving fund where members will borrow at low interest.

The money, which was released through the Ministry of Gender and Labour and Social Development, is in addition to shillings five billion that was previously allocated to the Uganda National Musicians Federation (UNMF) last financial year.

“They had three requests. They wanted money to enforce the copy right law; they wanted a home of their own and they wanted money where they could go and borrow at a low interest rate.  We have now given them the money,” Ggoobi said.

Although there have been allegations of misuse of the money, Ggoobi said the leaders of the federation presented the accountability of the money and it was good.

“They gave me the accountability, and I was very happy. On their account, their savings had grown to sh8b and people are borrowing at low interest rate,” he said.

The leaders of the federation have been under pressure to account for them by fellow members. Some of the members accused top members of unfairly rewarding themselves hundreds of millions while others received peanuts or nothing at all.

The federation leadership has, however, denied the allegations and tasked the accusers to bring evidence.