NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

By Nelson Wesonga, Moses Kyeyune

Mobile Money use fell by more than half a trillion Shillings following the introduction of tax on the transactions, Bank of Uganda (BoU) has said.

Mr Charles Abuka, the BoU’s director of statistics, said: “…the value of Mobile Money transactions declined by Shs672 billion in the first two weeks of July 2018, compared to the first two weeks of June 2018, in part, following the announcement of the Excise Duty Amendment Act, 2018, introducing a tax of one per cent of the value of the transaction that would apply on mobile money transactions.”

Mr Abuka told the parliamentary Committee on Finance yesterday that the decline suggests users could have switched from electronic transacting to cash.

Photo courtesy of Simone McCourtie.