The telecom sector’s contribution to the tax revenue hit Shs1.1 trillion, up from Shs131b in 2016 as of December 2020, according to Ministry of ICT and National Guidance. In November last year, President Museveni named telecom company MTN as the highest taxpayer with expected annual returns of Shs701b, followed by Airtel with Shs500b. Ms Judith...
MTN Uganda said it will appeal a decision by the country’s High Court ordering the company to pay US$14.1-million for a transitional licence. The operator had petitioned the court challenging the legality of an assessment by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) for a transitional licence between 2018 and June 2020. During this period MTN was...
The Uganda Communications Commission has granted a National Telecommunication Operator (NTO) license to Lycamobile, making the company the Third National Operator. Lycamobile, whose parent company Tangerine Limited has operated in Uganda since 2008, got the NTO license on March 24, 2021. During an event held at the UCC Head Office on Tuesday, May 11, 2021,...
The National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) could be merged into the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) under plans to streamline government agencies and authorities. A report from Techjaja says an independent review team has proposed that NITA-U be abolished and its operations taken over by the UCC. This would give the UCC responsibility for major projects such as the...
Liquid Intelligent Technologies Uganda, part of the Liquid Intelligent Technologies group has unveiled its new brand identity in Uganda. In March this year, Liquid announced its rebranding strategy to provide a new layer of cyber security, cloud, compute and other managed services to clients. Ahmad Mokhles, Group Chief Operations Officer, said that the COVID-19 pandemic...
In 2020, nearly 1,000 ICT project leaders requested financial support from the government. 60 of them were enough to exhaust the available budget. As digital transformation becomes a priority again, Uganda wants to invest more in its tech community. Ugandan Minister of Information and Communication Technologies, Judith Nabakooba, wants a financial strengthening of the innovation fund with...
Mobile subscription in Uganda has dropped by 11%, while internet subscriptions registered subdued growth, leaving only mobile money as an outstanding performer. This is according to a report from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) which showed the mobile subscriptions decreased from 28.4 million at the end of March 2020 to 25.5 million at the end...
Introduced in 2018, the OTT tax ultimately failed to deliver the results expected by the Ugandan government. A new tax model is already in the making to replace it. Further consumer protests are expected. The government of the Republic of Uganda has decided to directly tax the purchase of Internet packages in the country. Finance Minister Matia Kasaija...
South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Saudi investors are in talks to avoid a potential liquidation of pan-African operator Smile Telecoms Holdings, reports Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. If PIC, which owns a minority stake and is a creditor to Smile, fails to reach an agreement over an outstanding put option with the...
Rumors of Hamilton Telecom applying for a telecom license have been buzzing since 2017. After long rumors of a possible UTL acquisition, the US-based telecom has applied to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) for yet another license to provide telecom services Nationwide in Uganda under the name Hamilton Telecom Limited. The company has applied for a...
