MoTIV Creations on Wednesday launched ‘Motivated Impact’ —an initiative aimed at supporting Ugandan businesses through promoting local sourcing by corporate companies under the theme “Creating sustainable impact through applied technology hubs”.
During the launch, MoTIV Team Lead Mr. CK Japheth stated that Uganda is brewing with a lot of untapped talent that can be capitalized to create job opportunities and a thriving economy.
“Creative entrepreneurs have the opportunity to scale their businesses to meet demand for local and international markets through manufacturing. However, for this to happen we’ve a responsibility to create an enabling ecosystem that will favour makers and artisans right from the idea stage through production and on to the market,” he said. He added that solutions that foster collaboration, impact and sustainability such as MoTIV should be their new normal with support from partners.
According to a 2018 report by UNESCO, the creative economy is made up of cultural and creative industry sectors that generate annual revenues of US$2,250 billion and global exports of over US$250 billion. According to recent forecasts, these sectors will represent around 10% of global GDP in the years to come. The cultural and creative industries currently provide nearly 30 million jobs worldwide and employ more people aged 15−29 than any other sector. Nearly half of the people working in the cultural and creative industries are women, opening up new opportunities to address gender inequalities.
“This shows that there is potential within this sector and MoTIV is working diligently to unlock and enable this potential in Uganda. We consider women important in unlocking this potential through the pillars they are ably participating in such as metal and woodwork,” Japheth notes.
Japheth added that MoTIV has built a unique network of Ugandan creative entrepreneurs that produce high quality and unique products across the country and through Motivated Impact they leverage their unique network to deliver products to corporate organisations.
In a panel discussion, with Marci Onsinyo, Evelyn Zalwango (Fundi Women) and Collin Mugisha (American Towers) —discussed the challenges within the creative sector. They noted that there is a challenge to produce at scale due to the capital intensive resources needed and the support system to access market and funding. Another challenge raised was the perception that Ugandan made products and materials are not of good quality citing a need for mindset shift.
“Materials indigenous to Uganda such as barkcloth are being used abroad in countries such as Germany and the U.S. and we need to start appreciating and using what we have locally in supporting and enabling the ecosystem,” Onsinyo said.
MoTIV has provided a holistic solution for this through the machinery and human resources provided. Creatives now have the opportunity to produce at scale and corporates can now locally source and place large orders because small brands will be able to produce larger quantities.
Nicholas Spencer, the Marketplace Lead at MoTIV noted that; “A provision of skilling and manufacturing capacity to the creative industry has the ability to solve the unemployment problem with the capability to meet demand for both local and international markets.” He concluded that corporate companies need to support Ugandan business to not only positively impact communities but also foster economic growth.
MoTIV Creations provides an opportunity for makers to have access to high quality innovative machinery, training, and a marketplace. They have five pillars; Textile, Wood & Metal, Media, Kitchen Station and Co-working Space —providing an opportunity to access tools, training, a tribe and a marketplace where brands sell their products.
