Musician Moses Ssali alias Bebe Cool has said that a planned government stimulus package is the only way to help the music and sports industry to remain afloat given the effects of covid-19.
According to Bebe Cool, the entertainment industry holds so many people and the effect of covid-19 has been so tough to the extent that no artistes was left with a single coin in his pocket.
He said that the industry has people who are ‘out of chance and don’t know anything else and they never save therefore the young people need Capital to have somewhere to start from.’
“If you don’t want us to insist on our stupidity of telling you to open up. Find out why we are saying you open. We understand in our industry we are stupid but we also deserve the attention,” said Bebe Cool during a radio talk show at the weekend.
Bebe Cool said that he is aware that the government can’t sustain the option of giving the artistes money but at least they should be given a chance to start other than keeping quiet for all this long.
“The President needs to wake up and directly engage the people affected. The President is concentrating on safety but there are people who won’t return (economically),” he noted.
He asked the government to stop talking about people dying of covid-19 and yet there are a lot of Ugandans who are dying of hunger.
“No one expected Uganda to be among the countries with the least number of deaths. I credit government for giving us information because sometimes medication is not the medicine and the good hospitals,” Bebe Cool said.
He also noted that there is lack of information in the public regarding how to safeguard themselves against the pandemic adding that the information is being sent in English alone which hampers dissemination.
“We can abide by the SOPs, let the music industry work during the day for those who can work so that we can get food. The young people need the money to have somewhere to start from and the reality would be stimulus package,” he said.
Last year, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development said it had set aside shs 6.6 billion stimulus package for artists whose activities were affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
The beneficiaries would include artistes whose performances were cancelled after the government banned public gatherings in March last year.
The National Culture and Creative Industries Forum (NCCIF) had petitioned the government to establish a fund to support the recovery of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) during and after Covid-19 to generate revenue, income and employment.
The pandemic had affected the film, music, media, multimedia, audio-visual, performing arts, visual art, fashion and design, literature and book publishing industries.
