Uganda to recognise Top 50 Brands

Most of the nominated brands including Mukwano, Britannia, Blue Band, Picfare, Azam, and Nice, are products of the manufacturing industry. Also featuring prominently on the list, are beverage brands such as Pepsi, Coca-cola, Splash, Uganda Waragi, Bell Lager, Nile Special and Rwenzori Mineral Water.

The media category is represented by Daily Monitor, a publication of The Monitor Publication Limited, New Vision, a publication of Vision Group, Wavah Broadcasting Service Television (WBS-TV), MultiChoice/DStv, and KFM, another brand of Monitor Publications. Centenary Bank, Bank of Baroda, Housing Finance Bank, Tropical, and Stanbic Bank are some of the financial institutions in the race.

Popular brands not nominated

A number of popular brands, which have served generation after generation, are conspicuously missing on the list of nominated companies and brands. These include: Shell, Total, Colgate, Post Uganda, and Uganda Broadcasting Corporation Television, formally known as Uganda Television, among others.

To participate in the selection process, Ugandans were required to vote for their favourite brands via mobile SMS.

Besides the search for the top brands, several media, telecommunications, and advertising companies, writers, and groups of professionals have launched initiatives geared to mark the golden jubilee celebrations.

Uganda@50

For instance, Daily Monitor and New Vision are publishing a series of stories about national events that occurred in the past. The newspapers have also profiled some of Uganda's great personalities of the last 50 years. The stories are published under the theme, "Uganda@50".

At the individual level, Joachim Buwembo, a Ugandan journalist, has published The Uganda Paradox, a book in which he gives his account of the last 50 years. In this book, Buwembo writes just about every interesting subject in the Ugandan society ranging from fashion, music, business, governance to the late president Idi Amin era.

Away from the media, fireworks Advertising, an advertising agency, in partnership with the Uganda Visual Artists Association, is organising a one week art exhibition to showcase Uganda's best artworks of the last 50 years. The exhibition which has attracted the participation of over 50 artists is scheduled to take place in September in Kampala.