Ugandan creative entrepreneur Julius Kyazze has been recognised among the 100 Most Influential Africans, adding another continental recognition to a career that has largely been spent building businesses across music, entertainment, media and the wider creative economy.
Kyazze is best known as the co-founder of Swangz Avenue, one of Uganda’s most established music and entertainment companies, which he started alongside Benon Mugumbya.
Over the years, however, his work has expanded beyond the music business.
Through LIVE54+, Kyazze is now focused on building a wider African creative group bringing together businesses and investments across music, experiential marketing, media, content, creative services and talent.
For Kyazze, the recognition is significant not only personally, but also because of what it says about the growing relevance of Africa’s creative industries.
“I’ve always been more comfortable building than talking about the building. So recognition like this is a moment to appreciate how far we have come, but also to remember how much more there is to do,” Kyazze said.
His journey started in Uganda, where he has spent close to two decades building businesses within the entertainment and marketing industries.
Swangz Avenue has played a significant role in Uganda’s modern music industry, working with and developing some of the country’s most recognised artists while also expanding into events, content production and other areas of entertainment.
Kyazze has also been involved in building Buzz Group Africa, an experiential marketing business operating across several African markets, as well as other ventures within the creative sector.
His bigger ambition now is to demonstrate that African creativity can produce more than successful artists, songs and events. It can also produce large, investable African-owned businesses.
“Africa has already proved that we have the talent and the culture,” Kyazze says. “The next phase is ownership. We need to build the companies, platforms, intellectual property and infrastructure around that creativity.”
The recognition comes as Kyazze increasingly positions his work beyond Uganda, while maintaining that Uganda remains an important part of the story.
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What started as a Ugandan music business is gradually becoming part of a much bigger ambition: building African creative companies capable of competing across the continent and eventually on the global stage.
For Uganda’s creative industry, Kyazze’s continental recognition is also another indication that businesses and ideas built within the country can increasingly find relevance far beyond its borders.
For Kyazze, though, the message following the recognition was characteristically simple:
“There is still a lot to build.”
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