New Vision Gives Sh80m To Govt

By Milton Olupot THE New Vision Corporation has paid the government sh80m in dividends.The Managing Director and Editor in Chief, William Pike, yesterday handed over the sh80m cheque to the Minister of State for Privatisation, Prof. Peter Kasenene, at the Privatisation Unit (PU) board room in Kampala.Kasenene commended The New Vision management and staff for making it a profitable public corporation. “I wish to congratulate The New Vision on this steady growth and being the market leader in newspaper publishing, advertising and commercial printing in Uganda,” he said.“This performance is an example to the other public enterprises that with a little more effort, they can turn around their operations and declare dividends to the government and other shareholders,” Kasenene added. He was flanked by the Privatisation Unit director Michael Opagi, the PU team leader, Orono Otweyo and the Parastatal Monitoring Unit director Emmanuel Nyirinkindi.Pike said The New Vision’s pre-tax profit last year was about sh1.5b.The Chief Accountant, Zubair Musoke, Chief Internal Auditor G. Ndyanabo and the acting Corporation Secretary, Robert Kabushenga, accompanied him.“This has been a very profitable investment by the government. from the initial capital of US$24,000 (about sh40m) given to us by the government in 1986, the corporation was worth sh5.2b in June last year. However, we now recognise the need and commitment to give the government some dividends,” he added.Pike dismissed rumours that The New Vision was subsidised by government. “That is not true, instead the corporation subsidises government. This year we are likely to pay sh5b in taxes,” he said.Kasenene said government was committed to the sale of its shares. “Management and staff of The New Vision have worked tirelessly to make the corporation profitable. Therefore opportunity will first be given to them during the divestiture,” he said.Ends