New Vision Group

The New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited (NVPPCL), commonly known as Vision Group, is Uganda’s largest multimedia conglomerate, operating a portfolio of newspapers, television, radio, and digital platforms across the country. The company traces its institutional lineage to the Uganda Argus, founded in 1955 as a British colonial government publication. Following Uganda’s independence in 1962, the publication retained the Argus title under the Obote I government, was renamed Voice of Uganda by the Idi Amin regime in 1971, then Uganda Times under the Obote II government in the late 1970s, and finally rebranded as The New Vision when the National Resistance Movement (NRM) came to power in 1986.

NVPPCL was incorporated and started business in March 1986. The Minister for Information, Abu Mayanja, recruited British journalist William Pike as the company’s founding Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief; Pike arrived at the new offices in Kampala’s Industrial Area on 1 July 1986 and served for two decades. The legal framework underpinning the company’s structure (the New Vision Printing and Publishing Act) was passed by Parliament in 1987. NVPPCL was initially configured as a parastatal and later as a public corporation; following a phased divestiture and a 2008 rights issue, the company listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange under the symbol NVL, with the Government of Uganda diluted from full ownership to a majority stake reported in the company’s most recent annual reports at approximately 53%, and the remaining shares held by institutional and individual shareholders. Vision Group is headquartered at 19–21 First Street, Industrial Area, Kampala, including the Pike House building, named in honour of the founding Managing Director.

Media assets

Television: Bukkede TV, West TV, Urban Television

Radio: Radio Bukedde, XFM, Radio West, Radio Rupiny, Etop Radio, Arua One

Publishing The New Vision, Saturday Vision, Sunday Vision, The Kampala Sun, Bukedde, Akadirisa, Orumuri, Rupiny, Etop

Ownership and governance

Vision Group is a publicly listed company with an approximately 53% majority stake held by the Government of Uganda. The remaining shares are traded on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) under the ticker NVL and are owned by institutional and individual investors. Established under a 1987 Act of Parliament (the New Vision Printing and Publishing Act), the company is overseen by a Board of Directors, which appoints senior management. The Government of Uganda exercises effective influence over governance through its majority ownership and through the Ministry of Information, Communication Technology and National Guidance as the supervising authority. Editorial oversight is monitored by the Editorial and Digital Committee, one of the company’s internal Board committees.

Don Wanyama, formerly Senior Presidential Press Secretary to President Museveni, was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director in April 2021, taking office in May 2021. He succeeded Robert Kabushenga, who served from January 2007 until his early retirement in January 2021. Kabushenga had succeeded the founding Managing Director, William Pike (1986–2006), who had been recruited by Information Minister Abu Mayanja in 1986. According to New Vision’s own reporting of an 18 February 2026 transition event at the Protea Hotel Marriott in Kampala, Dr Edward Damulira Sengonzi, a seasoned economist representing the majority shareholder, succeeded Patrick Ayota as Board Chairperson.

The supervising authority for Vision Group sits within the Ministry of Information, Communication Technology and National Guidance. The company’s operations are regulated for broadcasting and spectrum matters by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), and its securities-listing obligations are overseen by the Uganda Securities Exchange and the Capital Markets Authority.

Source of funding and budget

Vision Group is primarily funded through commercial revenue, with income streams from advertising, circulation sales, commercial printing services, and various media-production ventures. The company has experienced reported declining revenues and recurring losses since 2022, with revenue moving down from approximately UGX 111 billion (US$29 million) in 2020/21 to the UGX 80–87 billion range in subsequent fiscal years, according to the State Media Monitor 2025 baseline and Vision Group’s own annual reports. The corporation has cited harsh market conditions and reduced advertising revenue as the principal drivers of recent losses.

According to the Vision Group Annual Report 2024/2025 as reported by CEO East Africa, the Government of Uganda extended a UGX 25 billion capital injection structured as a preference-share investment during the 2024/2025 financial year, intended to stabilise the business and ease liquidity pressures. The same annual report confirmed that the company recorded continued losses despite the lifeline, with costs continuing to outpace revenues. For the 2025/2026 financial year, Vision Group has announced a turnaround plan anchored in the completion of a new printing factory in Namanve Industrial Park, the installation of a Komori Lithrone G37P printing press, the acquisition of digital and short-run printing machines, and a refresh of the company’s digital content strategy. Vision Group leadership has reported holding a leading share of the Ugandan media market.

Editorial independence

At its founding, The New Vision was granted formal editorial autonomy despite its alignment with the ideals of the National Resistance Movement, and the founding editorial guidelines drafted by William Pike committed the paper to constructive criticism of government alongside advocacy for national unity and economic development. In practice, the editorial independence enjoyed during the Pike era (1986–2006) has eroded over time. The 2006 transition from Pike to Robert Kabushenga, who had previously served as government spokesman, was widely understood within the Ugandan media sector to mark a reduction in editorial autonomy. In the same year, Belgian journalist and activist Els de Temmerman was appointed Editor-in-Chief after receiving written guarantees of editorial independence, but resigned in October 2008 stating that she could “no longer count on the assurances I received when I accepted the job”. She returned in February 2009 and resigned for the final time in April 2010. Today, Vision Group’s outlets are frequently criticised for editorial bias, particularly during election seasons, when favourable coverage of President Museveni and ruling-party narratives tends to dominate.

AI and digital policy

Vision Group operates an extensive digital footprint anchored by the Vision Group corporate site, The New Vision‘s newvision.co.ug news portal, the Vision Digital Experience App (ViDE), an e-paper edition, a digital paywall launched in the 2024/25 cycle, and social-media accounts across Facebook, X/Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. No publicly available evidence of a formal Vision Group policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified in this review. At the national-policy level, the Uganda Communications Commission Act, the Computer Misuse Act, the Anti-Pornography Act, the Data Protection and Privacy Act, and online-content regulations issued by the Uganda Communications Commission continue to shape the regulatory environment for digital content.

May 2026