By Ian Ortega
On 3rd June 2025, the faithful will gather at Namugongo to commemorate the Uganda Martyrs. However, there’s something missing in the equation – the business side of the Uganda Martyrs. As a country, we are sitting on a million-dollar opportunity.
The total budget for organizing Martyrs’ Day is about UGX 2 billion. This translates to about USD 546K. Quite often, the Catholic Church reaches out to different organizations and persons to contribute towards this budget. For example, in 2024, President Museveni was a major contributor to this budget.
There ought to be a nexus of faith and business. Why isn’t the Catholic Church breaking even with the Uganda Martyrs?
In 2024, I visited the Montserrat Monastery in Catalonia, Spain. Montserrat receives more than 2 million visitors a year. The story of Montserrat starts in the 800s when Shepherds discovered an image of the Virgin Mary in one of the caves on this mountain. In the Montserrat basilica, pilgrims still get an opportunity to view this Black Madonna. On an average day, Montserrat will handle about 10,000 visitors.
But far from this, I was impressed by the self-sustaining model of this Abbey and Sanctuary. The Benedictine Monks decided to create a corporation – Larsa Corporation to handle the commercial side of this Marian site. Some of the neighbours to the monastery were given shares in this company. Although some of the monks sit on the Board of Directors of Larsa, they are not involved the management of the company. Professionals have been hired for this.
Larsa runs two restaurants, an 80-room three-star hotel, serviced apartments, souvenir shops, a museum and audiovisual theatre to mention but a few. Larsa also owns the site infrastructure management services line. This Larsa company boasts of about 230 employees.
Larsa’s mission is not just about turning a profit, but to ensure that the visitors to the Sanctuary experience top notch services and facilities, in addition to supporting the Benedictine community. Larsa makes to the tune of USD 22 million in annual revenue. Quite interesting is that most of the visitors to Montserrat do it for Tourism purposes, the rest visit for religion, nature and culture.
What then can the Namugongo Martyrs Shine site learn from Montserrat? Has Namugongo created a company to handle the commercial side of the site? Could an ownership model that involves the faithful be pursued? For example, a Namugongo SACCO to run this company? This company would then be responsible for other activities such as marketing Namugongo, creating new products and services at the shrine?
When you go to Montserrat, you are likely to spend at least USD 100. If it’s not on the Choir, it will be in the restaurant. If not, it will be the gift shop or on the audio-theatre experience. As a country, we ought not to shy from faith tourism and maximizing the possibilities in this arena. But it requires strategy. We can lift Namugongo to the same level as Montserrat or Lourdes or Fatima. Put simply, we ought to profit from the Uganda Martyrs. And doing so, doesn’t contravene our faith, it strengthens it.
Why can’t you arrive at Namugongo and have a classic meal, sleep in a fantastic hotel, have a guided Uganda Martyrs hike? Why can’t I have diversity in the souvenir shop? Get a Uganda Martyrs Umbrella, coffee cup, chocolate, name it all? And why should Namugongo only wait for 3rd June to capitalize only on those visiting for religious reasons? Why is it that till today, you cannot find a well-scripted Uganda Martyrs documentary? And individual documentaries for each of the Martyrs? Why have we under-utilized this resource of the Uganda Martyrs?
If we get serious, then Entebbe Airport should bring in at least one million visitors annually coming for nothing but the Uganda Martyrs.
The world has changed. You don’t market rivers anymore. You don’t market gorillas. You can market ideas. You can market stories and narratives. You can market experiences. We have a lasting story, an absolute advantage of the Uganda Martyrs. And mind you, absolute advantages are rare. But Uganda has one of the Martyrs.
If done right, we shouldn’t be fundraising towards the budget of 3rd June. Namugongo can be self-sustaining. We just need to revisit that story with open commercial eyes. Every other country has wild animals, rivers, lakes, mountains. But only Uganda, only Uganda has the Uganda Martyrs. The story belongs only to us. Let’s make the most of this.