KAMPALA — The Minister for the Presidency Milly Babalanda has challenged the management of Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) to target private players to bolster its customer base.
“UPPC was dying because its leaders of yesteryears did not have a vision for its tomorrow,” Babalanda said while opening the UPPC exhibition and flagging off the Walk, as part of activities to mark 120 years of the Corporation
“I thank you for the initiative of getting the UPPC to people [but]
we should now look ahead and target the private entities for the business,” Ms. Babalanda.
“This work is very crucial to bring everyone on board,” she added, promising to offer support.
‘As your supervisors, we will continue to provide you with the necessary support for you to excel. I am really happy that you have resolved the challenges you had here by nearly 80%. This gives us a lot of confidence that the UPPC will rise and rise again”.
Babalanda also revealed that she would soon announce a new board to drive UPPC going forward.
“We are providing a new UPPC board that is professional and quite tuned to the key function of the corporation,’ she announced, adding that:
“As government, we have learned from a bitter lesson that corporations fail because of people that are not knowledgeable in their business of the agency.”
The Minister for the Presidency supervises UPPC, a public enterprise, whose role is to supply stationery and also provide printing and publishing facilities to all government ministries and departments.
It was established in 1992 by the UPPC Act, Cap 330.
Starting in 1902 as the government printer, UPPC prints key government documents, including bills, statutes, and the country’s official gazette.
The acting managing director, Kenneth Oluka, said the management has developed their five-year strategic plan into action since the current market is competitively stiff, which calls for innovation.
He said UPPC is mandate to print and publishe all government laws and public legal notices in the weekly government newspaper, The Gazette.
It also serving government ministries, departments and agencies and the president recently made a directive that all government institutions should offer at least 40% of their printing business to UPPC.
He rallied the private entities to support them with businesses on their course to revival.
Oluka said UPPC offers a standard, quick and competitive output, probably unmatched in the industry, he said.
