By Alfred Wasike

ADVERTISING billboard makers have clashed with Celtel over premature termination of contracts, saying the move will push them out of business and create room for foreign counterparts.

However, Celtel’s marketing manager Caesar Mloka said, “We have a new product to market nationally. They have been too Kampala-based. We want them go to Mbale, Mbarara and other areas where our product reaches. The existing contracts are based on the past.”

“We signed contracts with a provision for a three-month notice before terminating them. We want to re-negotiate the contracts and give them an opportunity to advertise our product nation-wide. It is not because they are local manufacturers. We want to increase efficiency and reach our market,” Mloka said.

The termination notice was dated March 4, 2005 and was signed by Tim Bahrani, Celtel Uganda’s managing director and George Ayela, the financial controller.

The notice says the contracts were signed on November 2, 2004. It reads, “We are revising our marketing strategy. In accordance with Clause VII of the agreement, we give you a termination notice of the agreement. This notice will expire on June 3, 2005.”

The notice also said, “Celtel will review its outdoor holding in May 2005. We shall be honoured if you are one of the companies, which will pitch for Celtel’s business based on our revised marketing strategy and plans.”

However, the chairman of Uganda Outdoor Advertising Association, Umar Kakoonge, of Contact Graphics said, “Many of my colleagues who manufacture billboards and signs for Celtel are very unhappy with the pre-mature termination of their contracts.

Each billboard costs sh35m to put up and the cost of steel has gone up. A crane costs sh300,000 per hour to erect the billboards or signs.”

Kakoonge said they've introduced world-class billboards to Uganda.