Uganda sports industry

By Peter Cromwell Okello

The international sports events like the Olympics (winter and summer Olympics), and the Commonwealth Games and amongst the leading and most noticeable sports occasions in the world attracting world's best athletics from nearly or over two hundred countries to compete before millions of spectators and sports fans watching them live and on television.

t that point of the competition when one is running for gold and grabbing it, the pride that we all have implies that it is not just the individual Cheptegei, Kipsiro, Kiprotich, kiprop or chelangat running but it is Uganda competing against other countries.

This is why on winning the medal, they receive the Uganda flag spreading it up high, symbolising Uganda high above the rest of the countries in the competition in that particular item.

The celebrated sportsperson becomes the emblem of Uganda in the watch of the entire world whether Uganda as a nation invested in the emergence of that sports person or not.

At the end of it all, we all share the glory and the pride attributed to our country owing to the endurance shown by one man or woman. Actually, in most cases, the rest of the spectators forget the name of the individual sports person who won the medal but what remains ever to be remembered is the name Uganda. 

The name of our country is the basis upon which we as individuals, a corporation and as a country should consider investing in our sports industry partly as our characteristic of patriotism and goodwill.

Consequently, some challenges facing sports industry in the 21 century is not specific to Uganda but shared across many developing countries. Notwithstanding the glamour that we see during these international sports events, a lot of countries, especially in the emerging economies, still have their sports industry faced with voluminous challenges that limit their participation to few individual sportsmen and sportswomen. 

At the national level, despite the challenges and the uncertainties, the wave of our notable performance in the international sports events should give us the motivation to spend a little more resources to boost sports productiveness.

Some folks maintain that Uganda's government's poor investment in sports is because sports, unlike military establishment, is not the passion of the current president. 

On the other hand, President Iddi Amin, although he was more of a military leader than a social democrat, is applauded to have invested in sports because as a sportsman (a rugby player and a boxer), sports was his passion hence the reason for him giving it due attention. Whether this school of thought holds water or not, the country should not be deprived of exploiting the potentials of her sportsmen to shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.

To identify and build the capacity of young sportsmen's most of whom are buried up in the rural areas, there is need to invest in some low cost sports activities at the grassroots and regional levels where such upcoming sportsmen/women can easily be recognised and supported.

Events such as running for peace, interregional competition and others should be promoted to keep our sports stamina high. Public and Private schools should be encouraged, as a minimum requirement, to get involved in sports activities at all levels instead of concentrating merely on the academic feature of education focused towards passing examinations.

This means that schools should have evidence of the presence of sports facilities like play grounds and others in their schools where pupils and students can practice games and sports as a lesson and as leisure.

In my view, some students have excellent talents in sports, and yet they come from impoverished and unstable financial settings that cannot support the sustenance of their education.

Therefore, it would be a good idea to give them local and national incentives for example scholarship as a contrivance for motivation and to build their capacities and encourage future ones.

Congruently, with the established sports gambling/betting market in many Ugandan towns and municipalities, the taxes from such companies complimented with government enhancements should be utilised for improving local sports industries.

Finally bearing in mind that apart from its local contribution to national economy regarding food production and tourist attraction sites like Siipi falls among other things, Sebei region has become a leading producer of athletes who have earned this country some international faith, respect, pride and dignity by winning coveted sports medals.

In view of that, the government, among other outstanding social services, like health and education should have a long time ago considered as a matter of urgency, appreciating the contribution of Sebei region to this country.

By tarmacking the appalling road network across the region linking it to Kenya, Karamoja, Bugisu and Kenya, the contribution of Sebei region to Uganda's sports industry will have been decidedly honoured.

The writer is a graduate student of International Development and Education, University College London.