By Patrick Ssentongo,   KAMPALA-UGANDA

Uganda’s creative economy has never lacked talent — only capital. For decades, musicians have generated real economic value through radio plays, digital streams, and performances, yet remained largely invisible to formal finance. Banks view artistes as high-risk borrowers, while most creators continue to operate outside the credit system.

IPScore, a new Ugandan innovation, aims to close this structural gap between two worlds — creative work and finance — that have historically struggled to communicate. 

Although it resembles a fintech tool at first glance, IPScore is fundamentally a music credit bureau — a data engine that translates an artist’s intellectual property into measurable financial credibility. By aggregating verified data from collective management organisations (CMOs), distributors, publishing administrators, and telecom Caller Ring Back Tones (CRBT) aggregators, it turns creative output into a standardized credit profile.

Each musician receives a numeric score representing the reliability of their earnings, the integrity of their ownership, and the legal strength of their catalogue. This gives banks, SACCOs, and microfinance institutions a quantifiable measure of risk, allowing them to lend against verified music assets for the first time.

“We are not trying to replace banks,” says Geoffrey Ekongot, the project’s founder. “We are helping them see what they couldn’t see before: that a song, a catalogue, or a royalty stream can function like any other income-producing asset.”

^{EKONGOT (L) at another Arts and Culture advocacy panel.}

If successful, IPScore could close the trust gap that has long kept thousands of artists from accessing capital, scaling their careers, or building sustainable livelihoods.

Where Music Becomes Credit

 During its pilot, the platform’s system verifies ownership shares, royalty statements, and performance history, then assigns a score based on five weighted criteria — Ownership Integrity, Royalty Consistency, Market Performance, Legal Strength, and Catalogue Depth. The result is a Collateral Report that lenders can evaluate just like any other asset-based credit file.

Consider a mid-career Ugandan artist, signed to a local distributor and earning irregular royalties from both streaming platforms and CRBTs. Traditionally, this artist has no documentation strong enough to convince a bank to offer credit. Through IPScore, the artist links their verified income sources, generates a score, and downloads a Collateral Report showing three years of consistent royalty earnings. 

They then present this report to the Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) SACCO, which uses the score to determine a loan amount. Within days, the artist secures financing to shoot a music video and fund promotion — investments that would previously have been out of reach. This simple scenario illustrates how visibility transforms creative income into bankable capital.

De-Risking the Creative Economy

IPScore’s ambition goes beyond music. Ekongot calls it “de-risking the creative industry” — making creative assets visible, measurable, and bankable. This is part of the foundation of a sustainable creative economy and directly aligns with Connect For Culture Africa—CfCA’s call for greater public investment in culture.

For years, financial systems have failed to adjust to the realities of artistic work. Creators earn irregularly, from multiple channels, and often lack the formal records banks require. As a result, their income is dismissed as unreliable — even when it is consistent.

“Artists get paid late, inconsistently, and in small fragments, but those fragments add up,” Ekongot explains. “If payments are verified through trusted sources — CMOs, distributors, publishers, and telcos — you can model predictable income. And once it’s predictable, it’s financeable.”

IPScore shifts this perception by offering lenders verified, structured, and standardized data, removing guesswork and bias from lending decisions. This approach aligns perfectly with CfCA’s push for elements like statistical systems that capture creative-economy data, transparent revenue structures, financial inclusion for artists, and legal frameworks that recognize intellectual property as an economic asset, as seen in its 2024 Baseline Study and Actor Mapping Report for Public Investment in Uganda’s Culture Sector.

The goal is not only to expand access to credit, but to embed creative assets into the national collateral ecosystem — beginning with Uganda’s Movable Collateral Registry under the Uganda Registrations Services Bureau (URSB), the institution mandated to deliver registration services.

For decades, policymakers have undervalued the creative sector due to lack of trusted data. Uganda’s cultural funding remains below 0.1% of the national budget, far from the African Union’s recommended 1% that CfCA advocates for. Innovations like IPScore promise to change this narrative. They make the economic value of creativity visible — measurable — and bankable.

How the System Works

Artists register on the platform, complete KYC verification, and connect their verified data. IPScore then calculates their score and generates a shareable report with a secure link or QR code.

Lenders access a dashboard that displays verified artist profiles, collateral reports, and the option to generate loan offers directly through the platform. Each transaction is logged, allowing lenders and artists to build credit histories over time.

The scoring model is transparent but robust. High scores indicate prime IP assets with stable royalty flows, while lower bands signal unverified or volatile earnings. IPScore also includes a Royalty Stability Index and Ownership Confidence Index, providing more granular insights into asset reliability.

For regulators, IPScore offers an unprecedented data layer that could inform creative policy, royalty enforcement, and sectoral investment strategies. Ekongot notes that discussions are already underway with various stakeholders about formalizing such frameworks.

The pilot targets musicians with active royalty accounts, working closely with UPRS members, local distributors, and the Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) SACCO. Once proven, IPScore plans to expand through the East African Community, enabling cross-border recognition of creative assets.

Later phases will apply the framework to film, publishing, comedy, gaming, and influencer IP — building a unified IP credit infrastructure.

 ^{A snapshot of the backend of IPISCORE Digital Platform}

Ekongot’s long-term vision is clear: a system where creative assets can be registered, scored, insured, financed, and eventually securitized thereby putting an end to informal networks, handouts, or luck. The value of their work will be recognized — and capitalized.

The Bigger Picture

Uganda’s creative sector contributes significant value to national identity and the economy, yet remains underfunded and informal. Studies by IFPI, PwC, and Tapestry Research show that over 70% of radio listening time in Africa is driven by local music, but only a small fraction of that is monetized.

Platforms like IPScore can close the disconnect between cultural influence and financial recognition — giving creators a way to understand the value of their catalogues while enabling lenders to make informed decisions.

“It’s not about giving out free money,” Ekongot emphasizes. “It’s about building reliable data infrastructure. Once income is visible and verified, the entire ecosystem becomes bankable.”

Though still in pilot mode, IPScore represents a quiet but profound shift — from informal, relationship-based financing to a system grounded in verifiable creative metrics. In the long term, Uganda could become the first African country where a hit song, a short film, or a digital channel can sit side-by-side with land titles and and vehicle logbooks in a loan officer’s collateral file.

As Ekongot puts it, “The future of creative finance lies in visibility and verification. Once the data is trusted, everything else follows.”

In a continent defined by creativity but constrained by chronic underinvestment, IPScore demonstrates how cultural assets can become genuine economic actors. It offers tangible proof of what CfCA has long argued: that when governments invest in the systems, data infrastructure, and institutions that support cultural and creative industries, innovations like IPScore can unlock new value, expand access to finance, and uplift millions of African creators. Tools like this show that public investment in CCIs is not just desirable — it is the pathway to a modern, bankable, and economically empowered creative sector. 

Editor’s Note

Patrick K. Ssentongo is a Ugandan journalist, storyteller, and content producer whose work spotlights the intersections of policy, culture, and community voices. In this piece, he unpacks the pioneering IPScore initiative — a data-driven model that could redefine how artists access finance by making intellectual property a verifiable economic asset. As CfCA continues to push for systems that support Africa’s creative industries, Patrick’s analysis shows us what’s possible when innovation meets intention.