Uganda Communications Commission seeks to reduce cost of mobile phones and internet
November 25th 2022
As digital transformation accelerates, African countries are struggling to keep up. Uganda’s telecommunications regulator has identified the high cost of mobile phones and internet as the main obstacles to the adoption of digital services in the country.
The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is currently negotiating with the Ugandan government to exempt the devices from certain taxes to reduce the cost of mobile phones and facilitate their adoption. So said Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo, chief executive of the regulator, on the sidelines of the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit.
“ The cheapest smartphone costs about 240,000 shillings [around 64.2 USD, Ed] . The challenge we face is how to bring that price down so that everyone can have an internet-connected device ,” Ms Sewankambo said. She added that the high cost of the Internet continues to be a challenge for technology products and services.
According to UCC statistics for the first quarter of 2022, Uganda has 30.6 million mobile phone subscriptions, a penetration of 69%. As far as devices are concerned, the country has 20.92 million feature phones, 10.48 million smartphones and 3.63 million basic phones (for calls and SMS only).
The steps taken by the UCC should in particular make it possible to reduce the cost of mobile telephones and that of the Internet. This will accelerate mobile and internet penetration in Uganda in a context marked by accelerating digital transformation.
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