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The Budget Committee has recommended the provision of sh2.9b to Vision Group in the next financial year’s budget to revamp vernacular papers including; Etop in Ateso, Orumuri in Runyankole-Rukiga and Rupiny in the Luo.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, Vision Group closed three vernacular newspapers and despite Parliament approving funds for their revamp in the 2022/23 budget, the money has never been availed.

MPs on the Budget committee on Monday, January 30, 2024, argued that the local newspapers were critical in facilitating communication to the locals on massive public campaigns and dissemination of information on government programmes.

In February last year, the Parliamentary Forum on Gender and Culture called for the immediate release of funds to support the revival of Vision Group’s local language dialect newspapers but no money was availed by the Ministry of Finance.

“When we were appropriating money, we made sure that these local papers get support. These regional papers cannot be self-sustaining, so we appropriated money for New Vision but the finance ministry has never released the money. Through papers, our people learn to read and write,” Apollo Yeri Ofwono, Tororo Municipality MP and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Forum on Gender and Culture said.

He reasoned that by the use of vernacular newspapers, locals are sensitized to various government programs, culture, and language.

"We cannot forget our languages, so we are emphasizing this. New Vision can survive on sales but what about the local paper like Etop? The Ministry of Finance has let us down, your voices now, I think they will have to release the money so that our people can be sensitized,” Ofwono said.

He was speaking at the launch of the Parliamentary Forum on gender and culture under the theme: “Harnessing culture and heritage for social economic transformation.”

In November 2021, the Minister of Information Chris Baryomunsi revealed how the government was going to invest shs2b to revive the local dialect Newspapers that were set up across the country.

Baryomunsi at the time had pointed out how there was an information gap in communication across the nation hence necessitating their urgent revival.

“We feel that our audience that does not understand English has been left out of any reading option when these publications suspended their operations. As a government we are interested in reviving them for the goodness of our people,” he said.

In 2021 the Vision Group Chief Executive Officer Don Wanyama added his voice to the critical need of the local newspapers not from a profit perspective but on the premise of informing communities about government programs.

“The government should give us a hand to meet the operational costs. We need these newspapers for our heritage and culture,” he said.

“Covid-19 took a toll on us, our revenue went down since people were not buying newspapers and adverts were reduced which affected our capacity to publish local newspapers,” Wanyama added.

The Vision Group Editor in Chief Barbara Kaija applauded the initiative to commit and devote efforts towards reviving local newspapers.

“For over 30 years we have been telling the Ugandan story in those languages. They have been a catapult for development in farming, education, and entrepreneurship,” Kaija said.

According to Ofwono, many young people cannot identify with the sector and the activities it offers, and young people do not know the cultural efforts that must be made to encourage engagement through the creation of a Ministry of Culture, which is in other East African countries except Uganda.

“Culture diversity and programming is a very powerful tool that establishes creative spaces. It can help encourage communities by increasing economic investment and strengthen social ties among residents while affirming identity and scoring in specific areas,” Ofwono said.